


We Could Have Been Great Rivals

by Pancake_Prince



Series: Circumstances [2]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Major Spoilers, POV Alternating, rated for graphic violence but only in one chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-04-24 04:04:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 36,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14347626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pancake_Prince/pseuds/Pancake_Prince
Summary: Second part of Under Different CircumstancesAfter the events of the interrogation room, Akira Kurusu and Goro Akechi must figure out where to go on and what to do. They must continue and finish what they started, but fate isn't so kind as to leave these boys alone.





	1. Livin' on a Prayer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> True Justice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back everyone!
> 
> First things first, this part is rated M for graphic violence. This only applies to one chapter in particular, and a warning will be placed for those of you who wish to skip it. A short, non-graphic summary will be provided at the end of said chapter for those of you who wish to skip it.
> 
> Secondly, if you haven't noticed it before, my previous chapters were named by the day at which they took place. One of my reasons for separating this into two parts was because that changes in this part where one chapter may span over multiple days or several chapters take place in one day. And as such, each of the chapters are named after songs in I think suited the chapters either by song title or lyrics because I’m clearly super original, but just to be clear, this doesn't become a songfic at any point.
> 
> Without further delay, I hope you enjoy what I've cooked up for our favourite couple!

There’s a hesitation in Goro’s movements when he sees the shocked look on Akira’s bloodied and bruised face, the smoke coming out from the end of the silencer making the entire image hazy. It would’ve been appropriate with how much everything happening around Goro felt like a dream.

His gaze shifts to the wall behind Akira which had a perfectly embedded bullet in it. That was Goro’s third mistake of the night.

Goro’s first mistake was not helping Akira get out of the jail cell to then call Shido and come up with a reason for how a drugged up, beaten up teenager could take someone of his caliber on.

The second mistake that Goro made was shooting the guard who had come in with him right in front of Akira.

The third mistake was not killing Akira after having revealed his true colours, and instead shooting at the wall behind him.

_Anyone with any common sense would be able to tell that Akira couldn’t have shot the guard from the position that I shot him in... Shido was going to cover up everything._

A little glimmer of hope clung to Goro that Shido wouldn’t immediately have someone else kill the Phantom Thieves and consequently have him shot too.

With his mind racing, Goro stops thinking about long term issues altogether when he grabs Akira by the hair and slams his head down onto the table. Whether it was the drugs, beating, or both, Akira is instantly knocked out. With any luck, the younger boy wouldn’t remember any of this.

Now that Akira couldn’t stop him from continuing with whatever crazy scheme he was concocting in his head, Goro unscrews the silencer from the pistol and places the pistol in Akira’s limp hand, just as he was supposed to originally.

 _The remaining Phantom Thieves aren’t all idiots. If they haven’t figured out who betrayed them they will soon and will surely form a plan to break Akira out... for the time being, I must place my trust in their skills_ , Goro thinks as puts the silencer back into the inside pocket of his jacket and leaves the room. He begins walking down the corridor, towards the lift, when his thoughts are invaded by his persona.

 ** _If they know you’re the traitor, wouldn’t they target you next?_** Robin Hood asks.

“I have no Palace or Shadow that they could defeat, and even if I were to encounter them in the Metaverse then I’d simply unleash my full power on them... it would be pointless to try and maintain this charade for any longer than it needs to,” Goro whispers.

Robin Hood becomes completely silent the moment the chattier of the two personas speaks up, **_what about your goal? What if the Phantom Thieves try to prevent what you’re trying to achieve?_**

Goro smirks, “I’m no fool. I will make sure to never interact with the Phantom Thieves in the real world ever again. They know nothing of Shido, or my connections to him. If Akira is unable to recall the events that just transpired then the Thieves would only be left to believe that I betrayed them on behalf of the SIU, not to further my own agenda.”

When he reaches the lift, Goro pulls out his phone and flicks through his contacts until he finds Shido’s number.

 ** _What will you tell him?_** Both Robin Hood and Loki ask.

“What he wants to hear.”

He dials the number and after a few rings, the man in the other side picks up.

“Shido-san, my job is complete.”

* * *

It’s a miracle that no one notices the struggles of Sae Niijima carrying a 16-year-old, beaten up and drugged student from the interrogation room into her car on her shoulders. Akira was just conscious enough to stay on his feet but barely enough for him to do it on his own.

As soon as Sae gets him into the back seat, he lies down, and the prosecutor leaves his side to go to her car boot. Once she gets back, Akira opens his eyes to just about make out the blurry object that Sae was holding, “I don’t know how much of this you’ll understand but we’re in the police departments parking garage. I don’t know who here’s working for Akechi or his boss, so I can’t risk anyone seeing me help you out of here or we’ll both end up dead. I’m going to cover you with this blanket and until I say so, you can’t make any commotion. Nod if you understand.”

Against the wishes of all his aching muscles, Akira manages a small, painful nod. With that sign, a blanket is thrown over him and everything turns black. He can feel Sae fixing the blanket around his legs, “It’s dark, so with any luck no one will be able to see you,” she reassures him. Or she was reassuring herself. Either way, Akira felt lucky to even be alive.

That relief was short lived when he realises exactly why he was feeling that relief in the first place.

Goro had shot his cognitive self, plain and simple.

Except it wasn’t simple, nothing about this situation was simple. Akira still didn’t know who Goro worked for or why Goro was even involved in any of this.

He never saw Goro pull the trigger, Sae’s cognition had blurred back into reality at that very moment, but with Goro’s last words there was little doubt in Akira’s mind that he backed out in the last second.

The car door at his feet closes, and he hears the door by the drivers seat open. Sae gets in and shuts the door, “If the police know anything then they might go searching Leblanc. It’s safest if I just have you stay over with me until you’re patched up and rested. Try to stay conscious until we get there,” she starts the car and Akira feels them slowly move through the parking garage. The car stops not too long after and Sae rolls down the window.

“Long night?” He hears a man say.

“Something of the sort, yes,” Akira hears Sae reply, followed by fumbling noises, “Here you go.”

“I heard they got the leader of those Phantom Thieves down there. Wouldn’t mind givin’ ‘im a piece of my mind after all the crap they’ve pulled.”

“I’m sure he will get what he deserves,” Sae replies calmly.

“No way they’ll treat ‘im like a minor. He’s gettin’ the death penalty for sure,” Akira hears a beeping noise, “Well, your ID checks out. Drive safely ma’am.”

“I will, thank you,” Sae says, and Akira hears the windows rolling up. Akira couldn’t tell how much time had passed when Sae speaks up again, all he was certain of was that it was getting harder and harder for him to stay awake, “We’re far from the station, you can come out now.”

Akira slowly peels the blanket off himself and grips the passenger seat with one hand to help him sit up. He pulls himself up, and unable to contain the pain he was in, he groans loudly.

“Is there any way I can help you stay conscious?” Sae asks while Akira adjusts himself slowly on the seats and buckles himself in.

Akira rubs his head and croaks something inaudible out. He tries again, still with a dry throat but this time louder, “w- a…ter.”

“Of course,” Sae stops at a light and reaches into her bag where she pulls out a bottle of water and holds it over her shoulder, still looking at the street ahead of her.

Akira grabs the bottle, uncaps the lid and downs the entire bottle while holding it in both of his hands. He places the cap back on once he’s done but rubs at it with his thumbs the rest of the way, “keep me talking.”

Sae nods, “How did you know that Akechi was showing up tonight?”

Akira regrets asking her to keep his mind occupied, “Anything but… Him, please.”

“Very well,” Sae says compliantly, “Talk to me about your friends, the Phantom Thieves,” she looks into the mirror when Akira hesitates to answer that too, “I’m not interrogating you. I understand now why you didn’t want to sell them out, and with how much of your story was redacted I’m curious to know just how much of what you were saying about your friends was true.”

“Right,” Akira says, and in the interest of staying awake, he entertains her, “For starters, there’s Ryuji. He’s my best friend and the one person you’d always want besides you in a fight. Not cos he’s particularly good at it, but you know he won’t leave your side no matter what.

There’s Morgana. He’s a little odd and a lot more insecure then you’d believe if you’d meet him for the first time, but his intentions are pure as far as I can tell. He’s got a massive crush on Ann that he thinks is secret but even Yusuke knows about it,” the light finally turns green, but Akira continues. This was good. Thinking about his friends made him happy, unlike-

“Speaking of Ann, she’s great too. She can be a little ditzy at times and she definitely has no idea about what she really wants to do in the future, but her hearts in the right place and she’ll go out of her way just to cheer someone up if she senses even a hint that somethings off.

Next there’s Yusuke. He’s the most eccentric being I’ve ever come across, but he wears that badge proudly and you can’t help but respect him for it. He’s a great artist and his persistence is inspirational to say the least.”

“You’ve only known these people for less than a year and yet you entrusted them with your life,” Sae comments when Akira takes a break to clear his throat again, “You must have some special bond with them.”

Akira looks down at the bottle in his hands and smiles, “I do, after all, I’m alive aren’t I?”

Sae nods, “What about the others? Makoto, Futaba and Haru. You only met them later, didn’t you?”

“I might’ve known them for a shorter time but I knew from the moment they awakened to their persona’s that I could trust them,” Akira nods, “I got to know Makoto more after we took down Kaneshiro. She’s a great girl, super intelligent, brave and completely open to criticism. I was lucky enough to be the one to see her go from an insecure girl who everyone pushed around to a badass woman who didn’t take any bullshit from anyone.”

Sae smiles fondly, “That’s Makoto alright. Speaking of my sister, she will be home, but of course, she knew that this would happen didn’t she?” Akira replies with a curt nod that Sae sees in her overhead mirror, “Continue.”

“There’s Futaba, and never did I expect for that girl to be so expressive. It’s a little hard to get to know her, with the social anxiety and all, but becoming friends with her is definitely worth the work. She’ll never hold back on telling you exactly what she thinks of something, and once she’s got her mind set on something, her determination is to be feared.

Finally, there’s Haru… I haven’t gotten the chance to talk to her much but beyond the kind and respectful demeanour she exhibits, there’s so much more to her. She’s extremely strong for all the emotional abuse she’s received from those who you’d expect to show love.”

They drive into another parking garage and Sae parks the car, “You’ve got quite the team, Kurusu-kun.”

“And I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I have to wait around till my new laptop arrives before I can go back to studying again, I figured I’d edit this and post it today in hopes that it will improve my mood. I was originally gonna post this on Saturday and keep you all in suspense but I guess you guys got lucky ;)
> 
> Anyway, Goro is clearly someone who plans ahead for a reason because improv doesn’t seem to be his strong suit *cough his boss battle cough*. Well, things are definitely a lot more complicated for these two now.


	2. Back in Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro continues to act on Shido's orders. Meanwhile, Akira needs to confide in someone and Ryuji's happy to oblige.

Shido seemed to buy Goro’s lie about him killing Akira. That lie will only last until word reaches Shido that only one body, that of the guard, was found in the interrogation room. With any luck, Shido would be too busy with the election and would only hear about the true story once he became prime minister, at which point it would have been too late for Shido to do anything about it.

Goro shakes away his usual daydream of putting a bullet through Shido’s head and looks around the hauntingly empty recreational centre. It took Goro quite some time to figure out the keywords of the SIU Director’s palace, but just like all the others, this one started to make sense as he made his way through it in search of the Shadow.

Each room he passed was labelled with a name and, and inside there were only two chairs, a table, and a strategy game placed on top of it where all the pieces showed the final winning move of the player sitting closest to the door. He passed a door which read ‘Kobayakawa’ and peeked inside. Just as he expected, that room had been empty too. Further down he finds an identical room, this time labelled ‘Okumura’.

Goro reaches a set of stairs which lead him to the second floor of the building. With seemingly no Shadows on the look out for him on the first floor, he walks upstairs. There, he finds the floor to be a lot busier. Two shadows in police garb patrolled the floor and he could hear anguished grunts coming from the rooms. He stays hidden behind a wall and pulls out his silencer. He screws the silencer onto the pistol and peeks out from the corner. Just when the Shadow nearest to him turns away, he moves out from his hiding spot and aims for the Shadows head.

He pulls the trigger and the bullet quietly leaves the silencer, through the black, dense smoke that made up the shadows head and pierces his mask, shattering it. The shadow instantly turns to dust, leaving Goro open to an attack by the other shadow patrolling the area.

Goro stumbles back a bit when he takes a police baton to the face. He discards his pistol when the shadow turns into a Baphomet and instead pulls out his serrated sword. The Shadow attacks him again, using Agidyne this time. Loki manages to take the brunt of the damage, shielding Goro. Before the Baphomet gets another chance, Goro summons his other persona,

“Ravage him, Robin Hood!” Goro shouts, and uses Kougan, and the shadow falls to the ground, weakened by the attack. Goro uses this opportunity to lash out at the Baphomet, swing his sword left and right for much longer than he needed to. When the Shadow is long defeated, Goro, a little out of breath, stops his swinging.

**_That seemed quite excessive_** , Robin Hood comments.

“Don’t act like you don’t know why,” Goro angrily snaps back at him and sheathes his sword. Neither Robin Hood or even Loki make a peep after that.

He starts walking down the empty hallway, passing by similar doors to the ones he’d seen downstairs. The rooms behind these doors were a little different since this time there were people behind them, or at least the cognitive versions of those people.

The first name on the door that Goro recognised was that of Sae Niijima, and out of morbid curiosity, he pokes his head inside, hand at his sword, prepared to be ambushed. Instead, he found a cognitive Niijima staring at a Shogi board, trying to figure out her next move. There was a timer next to her but it was unmoving. Goro wasn’t entirely sure what that was supposed to signify. Niijima doesn’t appear to notice him, and Goro leaves her be.

The next door he came across was the one he was intrigued by the most, finding his own name spelled out across it. He reaches out to pull on the door handle but hesitates. Was seeing himself in the cognitive such a good idea? More importantly, if it came down to it would he want to fight his own cognition?

His inherent need to seek out the truth forces him to open the door.

At first, he’s shocked to find how pathetic his cognitive self looked. He was weeping over a chessboard into his gloved hands, still in his school uniform. The cognitive Goro didn’t even look up when he entered. Goro glances at the timer next to the cognition. Unlike Niijima’s, this one was ticking, and seemed to be counting down from 29 days.

29 days.

December 18th.

Wasn’t that the day of the election? Did the SIU director honestly think he could dispose of him just as easily as Goro had disposed of Kobayakawa and Okumura for him?

With fury slowly building up in Goro, he pulls out his pistol and points it at the cogntion’s head. The sound of the safety coming off brought the cognition to attention. But instead of begging for his life like Goro had expected, the cognition smirk.

“Would you really be so stupid as to shoot yourself in the head?” the cognition asks and puts a hand on the silencer. He pulls the gun closer to him until it touches his forehead, “Is it really worth it? The gratification you’ll get will only be short lived since we both know who will win in the end.”

So, he sees me as some pathetic, observant asshole. This may just be the easiest decision I’ve had to make.

“Your Palace ruler really shouldn’t have underestimated me as much,” Goro says, his voice as well as his grin growing increasingly sinister, “I would’ve liked to see how I would fair in a fight against my own cognitive self. I suppose if you’re so eager to die then it won’t be a fair fight at all.”

With one shot, his cognitive self dissipates into the air.

“Nothing to comment on, Loki?” Goro smirks, and just as expected, Loki remains silent.

* * *

“We will need to be prepared for whatever may come our way,” Yusuke caps off the Phantom Thieves meeting in café Leblanc, and everyone nods in agreement, “Well, I must return to my dorm.”

“We should be going back too, Makoto,” Sae says, looking to her younger sister.

One by one, each of the Phantom Thieves, including Sojiro and Sae, files out of the café until the only ones left are Akira and Ryuji. Once the door shuts, Akira doesn’t try to prompt Ryuji.

“I might still hate the guy for all the shit’s he’s put us through, but I know how much getting Ake- Goro on our side meant to you,” Ryuji starts. He gets up and slides into the other side of the booth to sit across from Akira, “I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you need someone to talk to about this stuff, I’m here.”

Akira nods, “Thanks… but won’t you miss the last train if you stay any longer?”

Ryuji just shrugs it off with a grin, “Eh, I’ll just run back or sleep on your couch or somethin’. So, there anything you want to talk about?”

Akira hesitates. He needed to tell someone about what he’d seen, anyone. Instead, when Yusuke had stated how he wished to have the entire scene play out, Akira simply stated that he was unable to see anything.

“I... you know how after we visited Kamoshida’s Palace, the cognitive world sometimes blended with parts of the school even though we were in the real world…?” Akira asks, hoping he wasn’t coming off like a complete loon.

Ryuji’s eyes widen, “Don’t tell me…”

Akira looks down at the empty coffee cup in front of him. He takes it into his hands and starts to twirl it around on the table to distract himself from getting emotional, “Sae’s cognition blurred into reality right after he killed the guard… well, cognitive guard. He said how we were a vital part of ‘their’ plan and pointed the gun at my head. After that everything blurred back into reality but well, I’m sure we would’ve heard from him by now if he hadn’t gone through with it.”

Ryuji looks down at the table, conflicted by how to answer. Ultimately, he decides that being there for Akira was more important then some petty rivalry he might’ve had with Goro, “Well, I won’t deny that the guys smart, and he doesn’t completely underestimate us. Maybe he’s just tryin’ to stay away from us?”

“You think I should text him? Find out if that’s what he’s actually doing?” Akira asks, and Ryuji quickly shakes his head.

“No way. I hate to say it…” Ryuji begins hesitantly, “But it’s prolly best if you stay away from him and keep your head low.”

The fluffy haired boy looks back down at the cup, “You’re right.”

* * *

Goro looks down the hall of the Diet Building, making sure that he wouldn’t be seen by anyone who would find his presence in there suspicious. When there’s no one in sight, he strides towards the door that lead to Shido’s office.

Once he was able to get to the top floor of the recreational centre, it didn’t take Goro long to find and kill the Shadow of the SIU director, not with how frustrated he’d been feeling since he’d left the interrogation room. Now it was time for him to meet with Shido in person once again.

Goro lifts the back of his hand to the door and knocks three times, “It’s me, Akechi,” he announces.

“Enter.”

Goro opens the door and closes it behind him once he’s inside. He strides over to Shido’s desk and looks down at the documents Shido was reading through. It looked like a death certificate, but Goro was worried why Shido was looking over it. Especially since Akira wasn’t dead, “That’s the death certificate of the principal offender, correct? Is there a problem with it?” He asks, remaining calm.

“No, nothing in particular,” Shido replies and leans back in his chair.

“I suppose then that the bodies of both the guard and the leader were disposed of in the appropriate manner, yes?” Goro was testing the waters for just how much Shido would answer his questions. Today he was lucky, or Shido was in a particularly good mood as he indulged him.

“They are both in the morgue and overlooked by our own medical examiner,” Shido replies, “More importantly, you’ve done well with regards to the prosecutors.”

“His death has been ruled as a stroke,” Goro nods with the fake grin he used for interviews. Even if his half-assed improvised plan worked, he had nothing to celebrate.

_No, I can’t be distracted any longer. Shido doesn’t suspect anything. As long as the Phantom Thieves never find out that I’m working for him, Masayoshi Shido will be at my mercy within a month._


	3. Come With Me Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the Phantom Thieves can no longer pretend like everything's normal when Joker's self-destructiveness almost gets him killed in Mementos.

_'That’s the same strategy used in romance, wouldn’t you agree?’_

Throughout the Phantom Thieves endeavours in Mementos, the words that Goro had said in his interview clung to Akira’s mind.

He’d never do such a thing as to endanger his friends due to his lack of concentration, and so Joker had told the Phantom Thieves to act directly without his commands, usually choosing to use physical attacks. His strategy only really became an issue when while wearing a Norn mask and he was up against a couple of Rangda’s.

Without thinking, Joker runs at the Rangda with his knife and slashes at it. The Shadow reflects his attack, sending him flying backwards.

“Joker’s health is really low!” Oracle shouts to them from inside Prometheus, “Be careful!”

“Anat!” Queen shouts, summoning her persona and uses a Diarahan spell on Joker.

Skull summons Seiten Teisei and uses Maziodyne on the Rangda’s, then leads an all out attack against them once they’re down. With the fight over, Mona turns back into a bus and the Thieves carry all of their loot inside.

Joker takes his seat at the front and doesn’t care to explain his mistakes. He doesn’t need to. Everyone knows whats on his mind.

Eventually, they reach the entrance to Mementos. They pick up the bags which they had dropped off by the elevator and leave the area.

With Morgana back in his regular cat form, Akira drops his bag for him to get in, but the cat shakes his head, “Haru said she has fatty tuna at her house for me so I’ll be staying with her tonight.”

Akira shrugs wordlessly and picks up his bag, “See you tomorrow,” he says in a monotone and heads back down into the station towards the Yongen-Jaya line.

Haru is the first to speak when Akira’s out of earshot, “I suppose that you wanted to talk to us without Akira around if you told him such a blatant lie.”

Morgana jumps onto the wall that Ryuji was leaning against, “He’s been behaving completely differently since he left the interrogation room. I was hoping that getting Shido’s keywords and visiting his palace would give him some hope but his mood’s only gotten worse. At this rate I’m worried that he’ll get himself killed in the Metaverse.”

“That almost happened when we fought those Rangda’s,” Ann points out.

Yusuke agrees, “An attempt to distract him from thinking about Akechi would be futile. As soon as we go back to Shido’s Palace he will be reminded of him once more.”

“So, what? We make him forget Akechi all together?” Ryuji suggests.

“No,” Makoto shakes her head, “Akira met Akechi on his first day here in Shibuya, right? Wouldn’t that mean that Akira associates most of the city with Akechi?”

Futaba nods, “Yeah, so we just gotta stop making him remember all those times he’s been with Akechi by making new memories with us!”

“Oh yeah that’ll totally work!” Ann nods enthusiastically, “But it’s pretty hard to find a day we’re all free to go to a Palace as is. How about we each take him somewhere over these next three weeks until he feels better?”

Makoto smiles, “That may just work actually. Akira won’t know that we’re doing it so he’ll still call us all together if he wants to go to the Palace. So, when is everyone free?”

“I’ll try to keep him occupied when you’re all in school,” Morgana suggests.

“I’m free whenever. Oh, I know, I’ll take him to that diner on central tomorrow after school,” Ryuji says eagerly, “I’m free after that too so I can take him to the arcade. I doubt he went there with Akechi but maybe gettin’ his frustrations out on a game might help him.”

“I have some time on Sunday,” Haru goes next, and the rest of the Phantom Thieves plan out their next week.

* * *

‘I think I’m gonna vote for Shido in the next elections’

‘I know what you mean, he’s the only one who’ll really stand by what he believes in’

‘Representative Shido is really the only candidate worth voting for.’

* * *

The next day, Akira groans when he feels something pulling his covers off, “Morgana… I don’t have to go anywhere today, why are you-,”

Morgana drops the blanket out of his mouth, “Ryuji’s waiting for you downstairs, and besides, its 3:30 in the afternoon. You’ve been asleep for almost twelve hours.”

Akira groans again and pulls the covers over his head, “Tell him I’m not feeling well.”

“I’m not gonna lie for you, Akira. Go talk to him yourself,” he hears Morgana says and Akira’s tempted to just stay in bed and pretend like he’s already out of the house. But with Morgana around he expected the cat to snitch on him first chance he got.

With a single move, Akira discards the covers and stands up, “I need to get dressed. Let him know I’ll be down in five.”

Not long after Morgana runs down the stairs, Akira pulls out the box he had full of his clothes and pulls out the first thing he could find. He throws on a shirt, jeans and his regular cardigan, then finds his glasses and puts those on last.

Morgana runs back up the stairs but stops before the last one, “Aki- Oh I was worried you’d gone back to bed. Well, I’ll be with Futaba all day so text her when you come back.”

“Will do,” Akira picks up his bag and walks down the stairs, following Morgana. He finds Ryuji in the last booth of Leblanc, closest to the door, “Hey, uh, why are you here?”

“Oh, uh…” Ryuji rubs the back of his neck. Akira was beginning to wonder whether Ryuji himself knew what he was doing, “I’m here because I heard ‘bout some new recipe that diner on Central Street is servin’ and you’re the first guy that came to mind when I decided I wanted to go.”

Akira grimaces. He really wasn’t feeling like going anywhere that would remind him of... Well..., “Can’t you go with Yusuke? He constantly forgets to buy food and you said you’d go have ramen with him in Mementos.”

“Yusuke ain’t free today, you are. I know your other plan was just to stay upstairs.”

 _And it was a good plan too,_ “Fine, let’s go.”

“Wait for real?” Ryuji stands up, having expected Akira to put up more of a fight, “Awesome, let’s go!”

* * *

The next day Akira doesn’t leave the bed, not until he could no longer ignore the urge to use the bathroom.

His phone had been going off the whole day but he doesn’t bother to check it, and despite some serious effort, Morgana had long given up on trying to motivate Akira.

Downstairs the café is closed and Sojiro is gone, the only thing left is a plate with some cold curry on it with a glass of water next to it.

When he’s done, he picks up the water and walks back upstairs.

The plate remains untouched.

* * *

Haru insists on meeting with him again the following day, and the guilt of blowing her off the previous day outweighs his own emotions. Akira spends most of his day showing Haru the various coffee beans they kept in the café and explaining the difference in flavours of each one and what they were attributed to.

She forgives him for not meeting with her the day before.

Later that night he cries himself to sleep.

* * *

On Wednesday, Ann drags him out of his bed and takes him with her to Chinatown. They talk and laugh, when it’s not about Ryuji’s antics in school it’s about an innuendo Yusuke unknowingly made when talking to the Thieves in Mementos.

It’s all good memories.

Akira awakens in a cold sweat with tears running down his face. Morgana isn’t there to see it.

No one is.

* * *

Yusuke invites him to the art gallery the day after, and it takes all of the moaning from Morgana to get him to leave his attic. Yusuke gives his own opinion on all the art pieces they see that day, and Akira intently listens. He learns some new things.

That night, Akira dreams about oil paintings.

* * *

Makoto texts him to meet him in book town on Saturday, and he texts her asking if he could go that evening, explaining how he needed to get medicine from Takemi that day. She doesn’t argue and tells him that she’ll have Sae drop her off there.

They talk about books, they talk about Sae. There’s never a mention of the interrogation room.

Although he hesitated to sleep that night, Akira doesn’t dream him.

* * *

Akira stops by Futaba’s house on the way to Akihabara a couple of days later and invites her to come with. He convinces her to play the arcade game with Shinya, and she’s ahead of the ten year old until the last few second of the game. Akira laughs when Futaba demands a rematch even with so many people watching her.

 _If Futaba was able to heal after all the crap she went through, then I can too,_ he thinks that night with a small smile on his lips as his head hits the pillow.


	4. Everybody Wants to Rule the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Phantom Thieves infiltrate Shido's Palace. Goro slowly pieces things together.

The last two weeks pass Akira by in a blur. By the end of it he’d managed to see almost everyone he knew across all of Tokyo. He didn’t even realise that for the past few days he stopped thinking about Goro Akechi altogether.

That was, until it was time to go back into Shido’s Palace.

Joker steps onto the ship, followed by the other Thieves. He puts his phone away and turns around to face the everyone, “This Palace isn’t like all of the others. Shido knows the Metaverse, he may have more influence over his cognitions than anyone else, but this is what we’ve been working towards this moment for the past eight months. Let’s do this.”

Joker doesn’t see the smiles on the Phantom Thieves when he turns his back on them, “Mona, Fox, Noir, I want you with me. Rest of you stay in the back. Let’s go.”

The four of them run into multiple shadows, but at each turn, Joker is prepared to run in and rip off their masks. They rarely take damage with Joker commanding each one of them to use the right type of attack against specific enemies, but when they do, Joker is quick to heal them all after battle.

It doesn’t take long for the whole group to get access into the high profile restaurant, and Joker is even in a good enough mood to let Skull help Queen in dealing with the waiter while the rest stand back and watch.

“Was letting Skull into this really such a good idea?” Mona asks, and Joker thinks that he’s right to doubt him, “I mean, he does know that whatever food we find in the Metaverse won’t have the same effect as the food in the real world, right?”

“He seemed very eager to go,” Noir observes the table from Joker’s side, ready to jump in at his command.

“This way he won’t complain, besides, it’s best if we keep Skull’s morale high,” Joker explains, and soon enough Queen calls them over. Without hesitating, they run to aid their fellow Thieves while the politician’s shadow transforms into a Yamata-no Orochi.

Joker steps in and raises everyone’s attack, then tells Noir to use Heat Riser on him, while telling Mona to use Miracle Punch and Fox to use Deadly Fury. The enemy charges, and Joker uses this opportunity to have everyone attack it with physical attacks.

Once defeated, the Shadow turns back into a cognition, instead of turning to dust like most shadows always did after a fight. Joker picks up the introduction letter that the politician dropped.

_One down, four more to go._

* * *

Goro sits at a table in one of the offices of the TV station with his homework in front of him. He was supposed to be doing yet another interview on how he caught the leader of the Phantom Thieves, the third one this week by Goro’s count. But instead of working on his homework like he was supposed to, his mind is elsewhere

_How did Akira get away?_ The only way he could’ve gotten aid was if he knew that Goro was coming to kill him, but there’s no way he’d know. Then there’s the case of the bodies in the morgue. If the medical examiner works for Shido then he would surely tell him that Akira’s body was missing, right? _Unless…_

Someone comes to the door and interrupts his thoughts, “Akechi-san?” a young girl, an intern by Goro’s estimate, holding a clipboard asks, “We have some delays today so we will have to move your interview by half an hour. I hope this isn’t too much of an inconvenience to you?”

Goro gives his fake smile, the one that always made girls giggle whenever he did it, “Of course not. However, could you come and get me once everyone is ready? I often lose track of time when deep in thought.”

The girl, as expected, giggles, “Y-yes! I’ll be sure to do that! Let me know if you need anything else, I’ll be happy to oblige!”

She leaves after Goro nods at her, and he goes back to looking at the empty page in front of him.

“The morgue…” He mutters to himself.

* * *

Joker, Skull, Fox and Mona stand at one end of the pool and watch the girls from afar, going along with Skull’s ridiculous plan.

“This isn’t going to work,” Fox speaks what everyone but Skull was thinking.

Skull turns away from the girls, “Hey, have a little faith, Fox. This will totally work!” Skull exclaims and turns back, just in time to see and hear Ann talking to the noble in a terrible British accent, “Never mind, we’re doomed.”

Joker shakes his head, “Actually, I think this is working.”

After a short while, the man stands up and hands Ann an envelope, “Oh my god he seriously fell for that act?!” Mona asks is disbelief.

“Perhaps we underestimated her,” Fox contemplates, no longer paying attention to the girls, unlike Joker who was now seeing the man get uncomfortably close to her.

“We should intervene.”

“Huh?” Skull asks and looks at the man who was now pulling Ann by the arm, “That’s messed up. Even if we got the letter, we should kick his ass!”

“Agreed,” Fox and Mona nod in unison, and Joker runs to the girls first, quickly followed by the rest.

“This guys a molester!” Ann shouts, and the moment the guys arrive, everyone’s back in Phantom Thief gear.

“How dare you set me up like this!” The former noble shouts. Joker looks around at the other pool attendees. They were making too much of a scene and drawing unwanted attention to themselves. This wasn’t good.

“It’s your fault for falling for such bad acting,” Skull smirks, causing Panther to frown at him.

“Oh shuddup, we’re doing this!”

As the noble’s Shadow turns into a Forneus, Joker decides to change up formation, “Fox, Noir, fall back. Skull, Panther, you’re up.”

* * *

The door of the office Goro was using opens once again, with the intern popping her head inside, “hi again! There’s no more delays so they’ve asked me to tell you to go to hair and make up in five minutes, I hope that’s not too much of an issue?”

Goro smiles once more, this time not looking up from his piece of paper, “It’s not. I’ll be over as soon as I finish this,” he sees that the intern was still observing him from the door in the corner of his eye, “Thank you,” he says after a short pause, which is enough for the intern to take the hint and leave.

Goro finds himself lucky that she hadn’t looked down at his paper, since from an outside perspective they would’ve looked like the scribbles of a mad man.

_That wouldn’t be so far from the truth_ , Goro thinks.

Usually, he was careful to not take note of anything incriminating, but he was finding it hard to focus without writing down all of the facts and trying to make sense of them. He’d pocket the page later and burn it in his sink, until then the piece of paper was the only thing keeping him from going psychotic without Loki’s help.

He stands up and pockets the paper once he realises that he could no longer stall without raising suspicion.

_You aren’t dead. You can’t be._

* * *

Joker leans against the railing at the top of the stairs while observing Noir’s dealings with the TV presenter. To his side, Skull’s apologising to Panther and the rest of the girls.

“Hey… I’m sorry ‘bout what happened earlier,” Skull begins, but Panther stops him by shaking her head.

“It’s not your fault that guy turned out to be super pervy. Besides, I saw you run in as soon as things took a turn for the… creepy,” Panther shudders, remembering the sickening experience.

Skull looks down, “No, I shouldn’t have made you wear those swimsuits in the first place, it was a pretty shitty thing to suggest,” he lifts his head to look at Oracle and Queen, “I should apologise to you two and Noir as well.”

“It got us that letter of introduction, didn’t it?” Oracle asks, with Queen backing her up.

“It was the best option given our circumstances. In the end we weren’t able to avoid a fight but you couldn’t have foreseen that,” Queen puts her hand on Skull’s shoulders, “Your heart was in the right place and the plan almost went off without a hitch.”

“Guys,” Mona pulls them all back to dealing with the situation at hand, “I think that president is saying some bad stuff to Noir, look,” he points, and Joker turns his head to look at Noir’s saddened expression. It didn’t look like they needed to interfere just yet, but he preferred to not take unnecessary risks.

“Let’s get in closer,” Joker commands, and they all follow him down the stairs. Just as they approach, they hear the president raving about Okumura’s fall.

“-you know, I’m the one who broadcast the moment of his mental shutdown. Our rating’s shot up because of that!” the president laughs. Skull grabs hold of his club while Fox starts to unsheathe his katana.

“Wait!” Joker hisses and holds out his hand in a stopping motion. He felt just as angry as the others, but that didn’t mean that they should take drastic measures. He let Noir take the lead on this.

“…stop it,” he hears Noir say, “How could you talk about my fathers death like that?”

“Hm? That’s just business,” The president replies and Skull pulls out his bat.

“You seriously gonna let him talk to her like that?!” He exclaims.

Joker shakes his head, “We’re already getting too much attention. Noir’s strong, she’s got this.”

“If you like, we could put you in a documentary. ‘Overcoming death to rebuild a family company.’ You’re so cute you might just get good ratings,” The president continues to laugh.

This is the breaking point for Noir. She gets in close with the TV station presidents face and shouts at him, “I will not forgive you for that! You had better apologize to my father!”

Joker notices her reaching for her axe, and Mona calls it before he does.

“Time to save her!”

* * *

“I will capture the remaining Phantom Thieves, no matter what!” Goro stands up triumphantly at his interview.

**_Bullshit_** , Loki call his bluff.

He was absolutely right. Goro only said this to maintain his public image. There were too many risks involved with trying to catch them before he took care of Shido, and even then he had no incentive to go after them. Goro had no plans after he took care of Shido, he didn’t much care for what happened to the others afterwards.

_Except to maybe find out if Akira was alive. No, that’s too risky. Akira was nothing more than an obstacle… it’s about time I moved on._

“My apologies,” he sits down, “I didn’t mean to get so worked up.”

For most of the interview, Goro is only there physically. His replies are all still as appropriate as ever, all of them lies as usual. It’s only when someone’s phone goes off in the audience that he’s pulled away from his thoughts.

“Hey, who is that!?” The cheerful host asks, “If you don’t turn off your phone, the Phantom Thieves might change your heart!” The host jokes, but just as before, Goro is elsewhere.

“…a phone?” he ends up muttering, and no one pays him any mind.

_Sae showed me Akira’s phone just before I entered the interrogation room. I got a headache immediately after that, just like those I get whenever I enter the Metaverse…_

_The Akira in the interrogation room wasn’t the real Akira._

_Akira was never there to begin with. He knew someone was coming to kill him and planned ahead._

_Akira is alive, and whatever his plan is, it is far from over._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I RECOVERED MY HARD DRIVE. Although I still have all of this already drafted on ao3, it just means I have more time to actually edit this properly now, especially with half of my exams done!
> 
> Anyway, thank you all for the support with this story, especially with the last chapter since I know that got pretty real...


	5. Crossfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro knows Akira's alive, now it's only a matter of whether he should stop him or save him.

It takes them a while to find the IT president, but the Phantom Thieves finally stand on the balcony of his room. At this rate, they could probably get to the treasure room today and send the calling card the next day, Joker thinks. Until then, they were waiting for Oracle to sweet talk the man… a phrase Joker never expected to be true.

Mona takes a peek inside, “Are they… bonding?”

Skull snorts, “Of course they are. He may be a cognition but they’re still both computer geeks. This might be the easiest one yet!”

Fox frowns under his mask and hums, “Perhaps, although we should still stay alert in case Oracle requires our help. After all, she has no attacking abilities so we must be ready to jump in should she require assistance.”

Queen nods, “I agree, but Skull’s also right. She does seem to be taking care of the situation with more grace than any of us did with the previous cognitions.”

At that moment, they all look inside where Oracle was showing something to the cognition on a laptop.

“So far so good…” Panther mumbles, and it is. Until the IT president reveals that he was in charge of the fake Medjed.

“-Medjed’s defeat was supposed to be an act, so their actual fall was quite a shock to me and Akechi-kun.”

_Medjed was Goro’s idea? Of course it was. Everything seems to be his fault these days._

“Isn’t it wonderful manipulating all those information-illiterate idiots?” The IT President says, and Joker catches sight of Noir and Queen getting ready to pounce.

“No, wait, we don’t want him taking Oracle hostage,” Joker explains, “we’ll take him down if he turns into a Shadow.”

Mona nods, “She’s got this.”

As Oracle continues, it becomes clearer and clearer that the IT president has no intention of giving them a letter of introduction, “Now, you’re gonna give me that letter of introduction!” She declares, but the IT President could not be less cooperative.

The IT president scoffs, “Why would I?”

“H-how about a computer competition for it?” Oracle stutters, pointing a shaking hand at the president.

“She does not got this,” Skull shakes his head.

“Huh? Don’t be ridiculous! I’d rather just kill you!”

Joker pulls out his knife, “I’ve heard enough. Let’s go,” He jumps inside and quickly runs to Oracle’s side, making sure to shield her from the cognition.

Noir, having followed him into the room with everyone else, sighs, “So this is still what happens in the end…”

“Well, now that we know he has one, this should be the easiest way to get it!” Mona remarks, and with it, the IT company president turns into an Oberon, the two women following suite and both turning into Titania’s

“Oracle! Get back!” Joker shouts and pulls her behind him, “Fox, Queen, Panther, you’re up!”

* * *

Shido hangs up on Goro right after his threat. He pulls the phone away from himself and looks at the glowing red app on his phone. Shido was being reckless, a word Goro would’ve never used to describe him previously.

_He’s paranoid. As if his mind was altered to believe that those closest to his cause would betray him._

_The Phantom Thieves, they must be behind this. They were inside Shido’s Palace, the Palace I’ve spent so long infiltrating. They won’t make it on their own, Shido’s too unpredictable._

Another, more sinister thought came to Goro. _If they succeed, Shido will confess to everything and never become Prime Minister. All my work will be for nothing._

He opens up the Nav and brings it closer to his mouth,

“Masayoshi Shido, the Diet Building and a cruise ship.”

* * *

Once they receive the final letter of introduction, Joker leaves the engine room with the remaining Phantom Thieves and heads for the exit.

“It was quite the feat, but we can finally open that door! Let’s take the Treasure!” Mona exclaims triumphantly, but even with the Shadows and cognitions gone, Joker keeps his guard up.

They walk up the stairs at the end of the hall. With the sound of a gun clicking, Joker turns around, and ducks down at the last second as a bullet flies over his head, passing past the others and hitting the wall.

“You’re quite proficient at dodging my bullets, I see,” he hears the familiar voice of Goro Akechi, although it’s not quite the same. This one sounds emptier, and a lot more sinister than the one he’s gotten used to.

When he looks up, he finds the form of the ace detective in his school uniform standing at the bottom of the stairs, pointing a pistol at his head.

“Goro?”

Mona shakes his head, standing on guard at the top of the stairs with everyone else, “That’s not Akechi. Shido sees everyone as a threat, so why wouldn’t he see Akechi as one unless-,”

“-it’s a cognitive double of Akechi,” Fox finishes for him.

The cognitive Goro pulls out a magazine clip from his pocket and starts to reload his gun, “It seems that the real me underestimated you. I will not make the same mistake.”

“He knows he’s a cognition?!” Oracle exclaims and pulls up a screen, “Guys, this is bad… his stats are off the charts!”

Joker pulls out his knife, “He’ll only follow us and get in our way if we don’t stop him now.”

Panther frowns, “You sure…? I mean, he looks exactly like-,”

“He’s not real,” Joker cuts her off, “that’s good enough for me.”

Joker jumps down the stairs and tries to slash at the cognition. Goro wasn’t here, this one’s just a poor imitation. And what did he care? Goro shot his cognitive double point blank in the head, why should Joker then hold back on the cognitive version of Goro? At least he was certain that he wouldn’t harm the real person.

The cognitive Goro jumps away, dodging the knife. He snaps his fingers, and three cognitions appear at his side. They each turn into different Shadows, one Pale Rider, one Moloch and one Baphomet. All three stand behind the cognitive Goro who remained in a human form, “Kill them,” he points to the Phantom Thieves, and the Shadows jump at the Thieves.

The Moloch starts first with an Agidyne attack aimed at Fox. He’s able to withstand the attack, but Oracle is quick to give Joker a better idea of how he was doing, “Fox’s health is really low! You’ve got to heal him!” The Moloch doesn’t give them a chance, now using a Psiodyne attack on Queen, which she also withstands, “Queen’s health is really low now too! Someone do something!”

The Pale Rider tries to attack next with an Eigaon spell aimed at Joker, and with the Attis persona he fused earlier equipped, he takes a hit too. Luckily, he’s able to withstand the attack as well.

Finally, the Baphomet uses Bufudyne on Panther, and that’s all it takes to have the frontline team on the floor.

“Oh?” Cognitive Goro smiles, “The real me must really be weak then to be unable to defeat just one of you,” he holsters a gun, “But simply killing you all now would be a truly disappointing end, and Shido-san has allowed me to play around with you all as much as I want.”

Joker stands up, a hand clutched to his stomach, “We won’t be defeated by you so easily. You’re just a pathetic copy of the real thing. If he couldn’t stop me, you sure as hell don’t stand a chance.”

The cognition smirks, “Very well, if you’re so eager to die, I’ll just have to make an example of your friends instead,” he puts a hand to his face, “Descend, Loki!”

Everyone’s eyes widen when a persona shows up behind the cognitive Goro. Unlike everyone else’s persona, it was hard to tell what it looked like from the darkness and fog surrounding it.

“H-he can use a persona?!” Noir says in disbelief.

“That’s impossible! He’s a cognition! He can’t have his own Persona, right?!” Skull asks Mona.

“I-I don’t know!” Mona replies, as confused as the rest of them.

“This is the way Shido sees Akechi, right?” Queen thinks aloud, “If the real Akechi told Shido about his persona then there’s no reason for his Shadow self not to have one… but it’s not Robin Hood, meaning that it’s a fake persona!”

The cognition laughs, “This may be just an imitation, but the power of my persona is very real. Take them down, Loki!”

* * *

While in a safe room, Crow pulls out a map of the entire Palace and studies it. If Shido was taking such drastic measures then they must have already dealt with most of the cognitions around. This didn’t give him any clues as to their whereabouts.

**_Maybe they’ve already left_** , Robin Hood suggests.

“No, they’re in here, I’m certain of it,” Crow mutters and folds the map.

**_Then how do you plan on finding them?_ **

He stands up and leaves the safe room, “I’ll have to eavesdrop on the other cognitions. If Shido has any worries that the Phantom Thieves are going after him then his cognitions will be on the lookout for them.”

Crow walks down the corridor cautiously, and presses himself against the wall at a corner when he hears some shadow’s approaching.

“Lord Shido is concerned that the Phantom Thieves have infiltrated the ship,” one of them says, “He’s increased security and even sent out his hitman to look for them.”

_Hitman… could it be…_

“Huh? That’s old news, they already found them in the lowest deck, by the engine room,” the other one says.

“Shouldn’t we go help him then?” The first one asks

“Nah, they say they won’t let the Phantom Thieves get away this time. I mean I trust that. If Akechi fails Shido again, he’s seriously going to pay,” The second one says.

_I’m the hitman, or rather, Shido’s perception of me is. Meaning that the Phantom Thieves are fighting my cognitive double. I can’t let that pass._

He swiftly takes care of the two Shadows blocking his way and runs in the direction of the engine room. He stops at the top of the stairs where no one below detects him, and watches the fight from there, crouching down to remain hidden.

**_Who’s side will you chose? You fight against Shido and yet if you join the Thieves you may never get the chance to exact your revenge against the man who wronged you,_**  Robin Hood says, **_would Joker even forgive you if you joined his side once more?_**

**_He won’t, you’re a murderer, he’ll never take you back_** , Loki argues, **_you might as well kill him now and get him out of the way. Or leave him to die._**

He watches the Pale Rider attack Joker, who falls down.

**_It won’t be your fault if you just left him here_** , Loki taunts him.

Panther goes down next from the Baphomet’s attack.

**_With the Phantom Thieves gone, all your problems will be solved._ **

Crow watches as his cognitive double summons his own knock-off Loki and readies his own, final attack on the team.

**_You save them and you’ll never be able to forgive yourself._ **

“I won’t have to!” Crow shouts and jumps down from the stairs. He lands in front of Joker before summoning his persona to shield the Eigaon attack from himself and Joker, “Come, Loki!”


	6. Watch Me Rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro reveals his true self

Joker eyes the figure that had dropped in front of him who donned a blue and black costume, with a navy blue helmet and dark red visor. The persona above him looked very similar to the one the cognitive Akechi was using, but this one had a lot more detail to it and didn’t looked at all concerned by the fight.

The Eigaon spell passes through the figure. The figure remains unmoved and throws something down to him, “Take it and fall back.”

“Goro?” Joker asks, catching the medicine. It wouldn’t give him much HP back, but it would be enough for him to swap out with Crow and fall back to the others.

“We can talk about this when you aren’t half dead. Please, fall back. I shall deal with him myself.”

Joker hesitates but he downs the medicine and helps the others get back to the rest of the group.

“Isn’t that Akechi?!” Skull asks, “The real one?! The hell’s he doin’ here?!”

Joker helps Fox get back by having him lean on his shoulder, Panther and Queen just behind him and supporting each other, “He saved my life. Until we’re all healed, he’s our only chance against those other Shadows,” Noir, Skull and Mona start to protest, but Joker shuts them up, “If it comes down to it, I’d rather deal with the real Goro who can be reasoned with than a cognition that almost wiped us out in a single turn.”

Oracle steps forward, but hesitates with her words, “I-If you think it’ll save us… I’m willing to provide him with support for this fight.”

“Do it,” Joker nods, and it’s all Oracle needs to hear to summon Prometheus once more.

Ahead of them, Crow stands in front of the Shadows and his cognitive double, “So, you’re how Shido truly sees me. Perhaps I told him too much about how I operate in this world.”

The cognitive Akechi snorts, “You would’ve told him anything just to get his praise, even your deepest darkest secrets. Do you honestly believe you could live up to the expectations Shido has set for you? Do you truly think you could beat me?”

Crow narrows his eyes, “Don’t underestimate me... Persona!” He summons Loki once again and uses Megidolan against the Shadows. All the Shadows but his cognition turn to dust.

“Woah! Akechi, your stats are insane!” Oracle says from above him, “The cognitive version of you is strong but with your persona you might have a chance against him.”

Crow looks up at her, “I would still prefer if you referred to me as Crow,” he turns back to the cognition, “You’re willing to help me?” He asks, still talking to Oracle.

“I’m not happy about it, but if you can save my friends, then I’m willing to make that deal with you. I’ll provide support and you kick his ass!” Oracle replies, quickly turning her attention back to the cognition, “Careful, his next attacks gonna be a big one!” She shouts when she sees the cognition charge.

Crow summons Loki once again and throws up a physical barrier. The cognition chooses to use a magic attack instead and uses a Maragion spell, resulting in Crow himself taking some damage. He groans, clutching onto a small burn mark the spell had left him with, “Oracle, have you found a weakness?”

“His attacks and stats are identical to yours!” She shouts back, “I can try to keep up your health and help you dodge but otherwise, I think you’re on your own. I’m sorry, I can’t do much else.”

The cognition laughs, “Must you really put up this charade? We both know that once you kill me, you’ll kill the only people who ever showed you any kindness. After all, that’s what Shido told us to do.”

“Shut up!” Crow shouts and throws another Megidolan attack that the cognition dodges. _I don’t need to hear any of this nonsense. He’s nothing like me. It’s not me. It’s not me. It’s not me._

 ** _It could have been you_** , Loki interjects.

The cognition laughs again and Crow really wants him, needs him to stop before he goes too far, “Did I hit a sore spot? It’s true, isn’t it? You’re just Shido’s puppet! You would do anything for him but he wouldn’t do the same! You’re nothing more than a tool!”

“I would never work for my father!” Crow says and runs at the cognition, swinging the serrated sword left and right. Cognitive Akechi dodges it, still laughing, “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Crow shouts, slowly losing all sensibilities and restraint.

“Father?” Oracle asks, “oh my god, Shido’s your dad?! Wait, no, don’t answer that. All your attacks are missing, you gotta concentrate and stop listening to him! He’s not real!”

Crow feels Joker stop him from throwing himself at the cognition once again by putting a hand on his shoulder and holding him back, “She’s right. You’re not a puppet, you make your own path, unlike him,” Joker points to the cognition, “You’ve made your choice. That’s why you’re the only one who can beat him.”

Crow grits his teeth and even considers shrugging away from Joker’s hold on him to continue his attack. Instead, he closes his eyes, unclenches his jaw and tilts his head forward as he tries to collect his thoughts.

“Are you really going to listen to some criminal trash like him?!” Cognitive Goro shouts.

 _Defeating Shido was never a real goal. He was only using me, just as he used everyone else. It’s time to stop lying to myself. Killing Shido won’t change my past but having him confess might change the lives of others,_ he thinks, another migraine slowly forming in his head.

 ** _Is that the truth that you’re going to accept?_** He hears an unfamiliar voice in his head.

Suddenly, he lifts his head up high, the helmet on his head disappearing, his eyes now glowing yellow, “I won’t let anyone else suffer at Shido’s hands! That is my true justice!”

He puts a hand to his head and screams out when the pain becomes unbearable. It had been quite a while since he awakened to Robin Hood, and even longer since he awakened to Loki, so the pain that came with awakening to a persona had disappeared from his memories.

**_My, it took quite some time for you to admit your true intent. But now, with my power you can break the chains that oppress those unable to rise above. I am thou, thou art I, fight for your justice in thine own name and break free of the prison society has thrust upon you!_ **

“Yes…” Goro mutters and a black mask lined with gold in the same shape as his Robin Hood mask appears on his face. He places one hand on the end of it, gasping, “Come to me, Icarus!” He shouts, ripping the mask off of his face in a quick, painful motion.

Joker stands back and winces as blue flames consume Goro and a new persona appears above him. This one looked like an angel, with long, dark hair, pale grey skin and black and red wraps around it’s chest and hips. It had broken shackles on it’s wrists and the dark wings attached to it’s arms were merely strapped on as opposed to actually being part of it’s arms.

When the flames disappear, Goro emerges, now looking completely different. His suit had changed from the black and blue prison outfit to one closer to his prince suit. Where the prince suit was white, this one was black, and the cape had changed from his red one to a cape that looked like feathers, black at the top, slowly becoming red as it reached his knees. The mask was gone, and his eyes were once again a wine-red colour.

He glances over to Joker, “Let’s finish this.”

Joker grins, all worries about how they were going to deal with the situation put aside, “Right,” he nods.

“Rise, Icarus!” Goro shouts and summons Icarus. The persona uses a bless break spell on the cognition.

The cognition smirks, “You can’t beat me!” He snaps his fingers in an attempt to summon more Shadow’s, but none appear.

“Shido was wrong to underestimate me. I am no mere puppet,” Goro steps forward, “I don’t care about what he thinks of me, I never truly did. All I cared about was him facing the consequences of what he had done to me. But killing him is a mercy, not a punishment. He will face judgement, I will make sure of it!” Goro shouts, “Persona!”

Icarus is summoned once again and this time uses a strong bless attack which builds up into a giant ball before falling on the cognition and causing him to fall to the ground. He and Joker run to the cognition and pull out their guns.

Goro nods at Joker, who jumps back and switches out his pistol with his dagger. Goro pull out his own sword and initiates his all-out-attack, “This’ll be a massacre!” He declares and starts relentlessly swinging at the cognition, jumping away when he got tired to allow Joker to finish him off.

With the final attack, the cognition disappears and Goro sheaths his sword. He turns to Joker, opens his mouth to say something but doesn’t find the words. Instead, his legs give out and he falls to his knees, catching himself at the last second with his hands. How could he forget? Sudden and extreme fatigue were the consequences of awakening to a new power.

“I… I understand that there is much that requires explaining, but for now, could I rest in Leblanc?” He looks to Joker who was now crouching down beside him, “I’m sure you remember what it feels like to awaken to a new persona.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guys know that Goro actually has a whole bunch of unused dialogue for Loki when he’s your ally? Which makes me wonder if the orginal idea was to actually have him rejoin the team and have him use Loki as well as Robin Hood, which of course I really wish they did do cos that would’ve been fun to play (and yes there’s mods out there which let you basically do that but, well, that’s not quite the same).
> 
> In any case, thank you all for reading, hope you all enjoy what else I have cooked up for these two!


	7. Renegades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knowing what they do now, do the Phantom Thieves really trust Goro enough to have him back on their team?

** Icarus: **

Arcana: **Chariot**              Level: **65**  

Strength: 43                    Reflects: **Bless**

Magic: 42                        Weak: **Curse**

Endurance: 50

Agility: 46

Luck: 28

** Unique Skill **

**Fall of Light** \- Severe Bless damage to all foes

* * *

Ryuji sets down his glass of coke on the table at Leblanc with a resounding clink as soon he downs the drink, “I still think bringin him here is a terrible idea.”

Makoto sighs for the third time that night, “he’d know where to find us even if we didn’t bring him back. He’s only got replica weapons on him and honestly him sleeping upstairs is probably the safest place to have Akechi while we figure out what we’re gonna do with him.”

“Which brings us to the matter at hand,” Yusuke begins, “Now that he knows that our leader is alive, what do we do with him?”

Ann takes a sip of her coffee, “well, the right thing to do would be to hand him over to the police… but then he might just tell them about us and have us arrested. He does still have that folder with the evidence on us…” she trails off.

“There’s one other problem,” Futaba says, looking over her laptop, “Akira’s body wasn’t even in the morgue but they claimed he committed suicide. Shido’s pockets run deep, he’ll just find out who turned Akechi in and probably send out some of his yakuza buddies after us.”

“We’re not handing him over to the police,” Akira announces finally, having stayed silent since they’d left the Palace. Ryuji, Morgana, Ann, Yusuke and Haru all start arguing with him but it only prompts him to speak over them, “he did a lot of bad, really bad and unforgivable things, yeah, but he also knows Shido better than anyone. He’s our best bet against Shido’s Shadow should we have to deal with it. Once we’re done with Shido we can talk about handing him over to the police.”

Futaba surprises Akira when she nods, agreeing with him, “His real stats were already insane with that Loki persona, they’re even higher with his new Icarus persona. We could definitely use him on the team.”

Akira nods, “Then you agree that he should stay?”

“No, I think he should rot in jail for all the people he’s killed and all the suffering he’s caused,” Futaba deadpans, “But… I agree that he’s useful and might be the key to stealing Shido’s treasure.”

Makoto also nods, but Akira was already expecting her to be the most sensible one, “If we’re not going to hand him over to the police yet, I’d much rather we have him go with us so we can keep an eye on him… There’s something else too. Doesn’t he remind you all a little bit of us when we first discovered the Metaverse? I doubt we know the whole story, but from what we know he just seems like another kid who was used and abused by the adults he expected to help him.”

Yusuke frowns and looks down, “I suppose it’s true that if I had not met you all, I may have met a fate similar to Akechi’s.”

Ryuji groans, “I guess you got a point, I mean I totally get how it feels to have a real shitty dad… But I’m still not super convinced. I wanna talk to him before we agree on anything and hear what he has to say for himself.”

“You won’t have to wait long for that,” Goro says from the bottom of the stairs. His jacket and gloves are gone, his tie is loosened, he has dark circles under his eyes and his hair is dishevelled, completely unlike the Goro everyone had gotten to know the month before, “I’m ready to talk.”

* * *

By the time Goro’s explained every small detail of his backstory and reasoning for his actions, everyone but Akira is looking away from him, choosing to stare at the window, table, floor or in Ryuji’s case since he was the one closest to it, the door.

Haru’s the first to break the lingering silence, “I may never be able to forgive you for what have done to my father but… I can’t hold you as the only one accountable.”

Futaba’s the next to speak, “I guess if it weren’t for you, Shido may have found someone else to use as an assassin. My mother was doomed from the start, wasn’t she?”

Goro nods, “If it means anything, then I am truly sorry for what happened to your mother. Shido was only after her research but I believe that just as everyone else, he had already decided that she needed to die before I approached him. As for you, Okumura-san, I understand that I can never repent for my actions, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t hold myself accountable for everything I’ve done and strive for redemption.”

With his elbows on the table, Goro leans forward and places his face into his hands, “Saying that I was only doing it to get my revenge against Shido is no excuse. If you all believe that it’s for the best, then I will turn myself in to the police as soon as Shido has a change of heart,” He looks up from his hands, “After I left the interrogation room, I disposed of all of the evidence against everyone. I’ll say that I killed the guard and faked Akira’s suicide by myself. I’m aware that by now my word is meaningless, but I promise to keep you all out of this.”

Makoto observes everyone’s expression before speaking up, “We still have to agree on this unanimously, but we would appreciate it if you helped us change Shido’s heart. Once we do that, I’ll contact my sister and ask her what she thinks is the best course of action.”

Goro nods again, “Understandable. I’m in no place to bargain with any of you, so I must accept your offer.”

Akira leans away from the end of the bar and turns to everyone, “All those in favour of having Akechi come back to the team until we deal with Shido.”

Hearing Akira call him by his last name stung Goro, but he didn’t dare question it. Akira had every right to be furious with him.

Makoto, Haru, Yusuke and Futaba are the first to raise their hands, followed by Morgana and Ann. The only one who remains unmoving is Ryuji,

“Ryuji?” Makoto asks, and reluctantly, Ryuji raises his hand too.

“I’m not happy about this, but fine.”

Goro gives a faint smile, “Thank you… However, may I make a suggestion?”

“No,” Ryuji immediately says, and Makoto shakes her head at Ryuji’s immaturity,

“Go ahead, Akechi.”

“We should send out the calling card as soon as possible. When I talked to Shido last, he was paranoid and anxious. I’ve never heard him speaking in such a manner. This may not only be the most effective time for us to strike, but possibly the only time we can strike.”

Everyone looks over to Akira, as usual expecting him to decide when to send out the calling card. Akira disagrees, “No. We’ll wait a couple of days and let him stew,” Akira speaks to Goro without looking at him directly, “Akechi, don’t answer Shido’s calls, don’t go to school and don’t go to interviews. Make him think that even you’ve betrayed him. He might take our threat more seriously if he thinks you’ve been on our side for some time.”

Yusuke nods, “Yes, this may be the best course of action for all of us. What will you have us do till then?”

“Morgana, Futaba and I will take Akechi to Mementos and check out his new persona some time this week. I got some new requests from Mishima so it’s the perfect opportunity to go,” Akira explains, “I’ll want to stock up on medicine and weapons too. I’ll let everyone know when I want to send out that calling card.”

“Actually…” Futaba trails off and pulls out her laptop, “I’ve been working on a little something I call the Futaba Canon for this particular calling card. This one really needed a personal touch.”

Akira nods, “Then we’ll send out the card by the end of the week.”

* * *

With Akechi staying over in the attic, it didn’t take long for him, Akira, Futaba and Morgana to get organised and head over to Mementos. While they ride through the Path of Adyeshach, no one says a word, making it the quietest trip the Phantom Thieves ever dealt with.

Joker is sitting at the front, driving the Mona car with Oracle sitting next to him and Crow sitting in the back. They get out when they pass through the distorted portal into an unknown area of Mementos.

The Shadow stands on the other side of the area, not interacting with the newcomers, “Mona, I want you to heal us if we take any damage, otherwise conserve your SP. Oracle and I will be providing passive support. Crow, you can wield multiple persona’s, right?”

Crow nods, “As of today I've been unable to collect personas in the same way as you have. The only Persona's I do wield are those that I have awakened to in an act of rebellion. As well as Icarus, I’m able to summon Robin Hood and Loki, although it takes some time for me to be able to fully manifest them.”

Mona turns back into his cat form, “So then, you’re a Wildcard like Joker?”

“I suppose you could think of it like that,” Crow nods, “Joker, you would like me to go on the offensive, yes?”

“Yup,” Joker replies without so much as glancing at him, “Let’s go.”

With Icarus’ unique Fall of Light ability which dealt severe bless damage to all foes, it wasn’t long before the Shadow of the swindler had been defeated and had promised to move away from Yongen-Jaya.

“Alright Crow!” Mona cheers when the Shadow disappears.

“You did pretty good out there,” Oracle agrees, and everyone looks to Joker, expecting him to give some feedback of his own.

He turns away from everyone and heads for the exit, “Let’s go.”

Before Joker leaves the area altogether, Crow grabs him by the arm, “Can we talk?” He looks back at Mona and Oracle, “In private?”

Joker pauses, then roughly pulls his arm away from Crow, “Mona, Oracle, go back to Leblanc, we’ll meet you there.”

“Are you sure-," Mona begins, but Joker’s stern look makes him think twice, “Just don’t kill each other…” Mona mutters, loudly enough for everyone to hear but no one responds. He turns into a car and Oracle jumps inside. They drive away, leaving the two Wildcards alone in the area.

“Won’t a Reaper show up if we remain here for too long?” Crow asks when Joker makes no attempt to leave the area.

Joker simply shrugs, his back turned to Crow, while he looks into the portal, “not in my experience,” he replies nonchalantly.

The monotonous, half-assed response is the final straw of Crow’s patience. He’d been understanding of how quiet and unresponsive Joker had been all week, but acting the same way in front of everyone, and in the Metaverse no less, was too much for Crow to handle, “Will you cut the crap already and talk to me like a normal person?! Okumura and Sakura are still angry with me and yet they’re approaching this with more professionalism. You have even less right to be mad at me but you’re simply acting like an irresponsible child!”

“A child?!” Joker clenches his fists and turns around, “Irresponsible?! Are you serious?!” He shouts back, “I’m not the one who threw a temper tantrum and went on a killing spree when I realised that my parents wanted nothing to do with me! And don’t you dare tell me I have no right to be angry at you! I saw it, Goro, I saw everything that happened at the police station!”

Maybe he didn’t see everything that occurred in the interrogation room, but Joker cared little for nuance at the moment.

Crow folds his arms, “If I hadn’t gone back into that interrogation room, someone else would’ve killed you, me, and the rest of the Phantom Thieves without hesitation.”

“That’s supposed to be your excuse for the murders?! For killing me?” Joker throws back at him, stepping closer to him.

“What?” Crows arms fall back to his side as he pieces parts of the puzzle together, “I… I never killed your cognitive double. I knocked him unconscious and ran away, then told Shido that I was successful in faking your suicide. After the news broke I came to the conclusion that perhaps someone else had done what I was supposed to. I... that's not it. I was too afraid of contacting you or any of the others to confirm any of it.”

The answer seems to have some calming effect on Joker, at least on the outside when he lowers his volume, “You lied to me, Goro. You’ve been lying to me since day one.”

“I warned you I could never be completely honest with you,” Crow shifts his gaze to the ground, “I’m not asking you to take me back, I’m not even expecting you to ever forgive me for the lies and deception, but please, until Shido confesses to all of the misery he has inflicted on each and every one of us, could we at least be civil with each other?” Crow’s eyes dart up, back to Joker as he takes a couple of steps towards him, “And once everything is over, whether you decide that I should turn myself in or not, I promise to be out of your life forever.”

Joker huffs, “what good are your promises to me now?” He turns around and walks back to the portal, hands in his pockets, “I’m not going to make any stupid promises, but I’m not going to endanger anyone else anymore just because of my feelings towards you.”

_Anymore?_

“I’ll give you commands, you’ll listen to them, and once Shido confesses… do whatever you want,” Joker says dejectedly, “Turn yourself in, disappear, go about your normal life or destroy yourself trying to carry out some other petty vendetta. Just do me a favour and don’t involve me in any of it.”


	8. Fortunate Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro isn't about to pass up the opportunity to watch Shido's reaction to his calling card.

The next week passes by surprisingly smoothly for Akira. Despite their argument, Akira let Goro sleep on his couch while the two of them were hiding away from Shido. During the day, Akira would leave Leblanc in his hoodie and not come back until long after the lights were all out in the café. He knew Goro was an insomniac and so he wasn’t particularly worried about accidentally waking him up, so much as having Goro try to engage him in some sort of conversation.

That was never the case. When he did find Goro still awake, he was reading a book, watching the news or doing the crossword downstairs, only greeting him at the appropriate times but never following up with more conversation as he did in earlier days.

By the end of the week it was time for everyone to get together and discuss the calling card. It was their last chance to send it out.

The Phantom Thieves gather in Leblanc that afternoon, with Sojiro closing down the café for the day. Futaba pulls out her laptop and shows everyone the fruits of her labour.

“Damn Futaba!” Ryuji grins, “There’s no way he won’t be freaked out about this!”

“Eloquently put as always,” Yusuke rolls his eyes, “But I agree, you’ve outdone yourself.”

Makoto nods and pulls away from the group, “There’s only one problem. How are we going to know that the calling card will work? Shido’s Palace is special, remember? We can’t just assume it’ll work the same way.”

“I’ll go,” Goro stands up from his seat, “I’ll see him right after the calling card is sent. He’s already been calling me every other day, he is most likely expecting me to show up in person and explain myself.”

“But… how _are_ you gonna explain yourself?” Ann asks, “And won’t we have to go to the Palace as soon as we send the card? How will you get there?”

Goro smirks deviously, “I have a plan,” he turns to Akira, “Would you have a flash grenade that works in the real world by any chance?”

* * *

Goro strides down the corridor of the Diet Building, completely ignoring the looks the politicians inside were giving him. He no longer cared for appearances. He was finally doing what he’d been waiting two and a half years to do.

Instead of knocking on Shido’s office door, he barges inside and immediately the two men in suits in the room train their guns on him.

Shido himself sits at his office desk and looks up, “Where the hell have you been you damned brat?! I was hoping your lack of communication was because you were busy in the Metaverse and yet I haven’t heard a single word about my associates disappearing! Must I remind you how replaceable you are?!”

Instead of reacting to the threats in any meaningful manner, Goro continues stepping forward with his hands up until he reaches the desk, “There’s something you should see,” He nods to Shido’s computer screen, “May I?”

Goro’s 90% sure that Shido would just have him shot then and there, but instead Shido gives a more collected reply, “I think you know well enough what the consequences of wasting my time are by now.”

Taking that as confirmation, Goro drops his hands and the guards lower their guns. He takes the keyboard, types in the website of a local news station and presses play on the live footage showing up across Japan of the Phantom Thieves calling card.

The red logo of the Phantom Thieves appears in front of a static screen with ‘Take Your Heart’ written beneath it, “We are the one’s you know as the Phantom Thieves,” Oracle’s heavily distorted voice announces, and Shido’s expression immediately turns sour.

“And all of us are alive and kicking!” Ryuji announces.

Shido stands up and grabs Goro by the collar of his shirt, “I thought you said they wouldn’t be a problem?!”

Goro smiles as innocently as possible, “Oh did I? Hm, perhaps I simply underestimated them.”

On the screen, the logo changes to a picture of a grinning cat, “-but the shitty guys in power, they’ve been manipulating information and hiding the truth,” Skull’s voice continues in the background.

Without letting him go, Shido turns back to watch the rest of the calling card play out.

“So, before we appropriate our next target,” Oracle speaks up again, “We would like to first borrow your time!”

Next up, it was Fox’s turn to speak, “The recent scandals of public figures, the accidents caused by psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns, these weren’t caused by unknown reasons. One man is behind every single incident, simply to satiate his own greed.”

When the Phantom Thieves first discussed this they had decided to only have a couple of them speak during the calling card, but in the end with Futaba’s ability to manipulate their voices, each of them were given a chance to say something, and so Queen’s distorted voice rings out through Shido’s office.

“That man was afraid that his crimes would be exposed and shifted the blame on us. He even manipulated the police for that.”

“We only steal the hearts of criminals, but this asshole tried to dump what he did on us,” Skull says, “That just shows that he doesn’t care about the law.”

There was much arguing when it came on deciding if Goro’s own voice would be too recognisable for this, but he stood his ground, explaining how he wanted Shido to know he’s betrayed him.

“The identity of that man is-“ the feed cuts off just when Crow was about to reveal who the calling card was directed at. Even without hearing his name, Shido knew who it was for.

He looks ay Goro who was barely containing his laughter, “You didn’t underestimate them, you’ve been on their side this whole time!”

“Oh?” Goro is able to stop himself from laughing but he can’t help but smile, “No. Actually, I only truly started working with them recently. But I never worked for you.”

Shido punches Goro in the face, which sends him falling to the ground. Instead of groaning in pain, he continues to laugh.

“You find this amusing?!”

Goro stands up slowly, rubbing his cheek, “Seeing my disgrace of a father panic because he had lost against a child? Of course, I’ve been waiting to see this for a long time.”

Shido snarls, “I thought I recognised some of that woman in-,”

The grinning cat pops up on the screen again, “The man behind it all is a current cabinet member of all things. The minister of state for special missions, Masayoshi Shido,” a picture of Shido pops up with his name written beneath it, looking almost like a mugshot.

“Everything he says is a lie,” Noir continues, “And to prove that…”

All nine members of the Phantom Thieves appears on the screen with a floodlight behind them, obscuring their faces,

“Look! All of us are alive and kickin’!” Panther repeats Skull’s phrase from earlier, “I’m sure the people investigating us can tell if this is a lie or not. Shido himself will confess to all the crimes he’s committed. We look forward to it everyone!” She says cheerfully, and the screen pops back to the previous picture of Shido, this time with some doodle around it.

“We’re not gonna sit back and watch some crook wreck this country, just cause of his goddamn ego,” the shot changes to show only the figures of Skull and Joker, with Skull looking to him, “Ain’t that right, Leader?”

Joker steps closer to the camera, showing only his masked eyes, “Yes. Before that happens, we will take this country!”

With the calling card cutting out completely, Shido lashes out and swipes his computer screen off the desk, sending it crashing to the ground. He turns to one of his bodyguards, “Get everyone down here, now!”

While Shido wasn’t paying attention, Goro slips his hands into his pockets and feels for the homemade, less powerful flash grenade.

Shido turns his attention back to Goro, “And what are you waiting around for?! Kill him before any of this leaks!”

Out of his left pocket, Goro pulls the homemade flash grenade and lobs it across the room, with the second bodyguard pushing Shido out of the way thinking it was a real bomb.

With the second, he presses the coordinates for Shido’s Palace just before the grenade explodes. When everyone’s attention is pulled away by the small explosion, he escapes into the Metaverse without pulling everyone in the room inside.

He meets Queen, Skull and Noir on the other side, ready to fight any unwanted intruders.

“Did it work?” Queen asks Crow as soon as he appears.

“The treasure is in here, I have no doubt about it. We must remain cautious from here on out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MY EXAMS ARE OVER!
> 
> Which basically means I have way more time now to look over and edit what I’m posting with more detail... hopefully... because I still end up making mistakes even after reading it over like 10 times...
> 
> Anyway, thank you all for your wonderful support, I’ve been reading everyone’s comments this whole time and I really appreciate how much you guys have been expressing your love and interest for this fic :D


	9. Seven Nation Army

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phantom Thieves vs. Masayoshi Shido

The Phantom Thieves all run into the Representatives Chamber, now unlocked. Shadow Shido stands at the end of it behind the stand, underneath the gigantic Daruma, and just as Goro’s cognitive double, he looked unnaturally normal given the situation.

“Shido!” Skull shouts, grabbing his attention.

Shadow Shido turns around, and his voice is as distorted as all of the other cognitions the team had encounter thus far, “Where did you lowlifes obtain that power? Not that it matters. If you have a complaint, I’m willing to listen.”

“Listen?” Crow smirks, “That would certainly be a first for you.”

Shadow Shido narrows his eyes, “I see my guards are as useless as you are. There’s really no one you can rely on these days but yourself, however, I’m nothing if not honest. I’ve hypothesised the reason for you approaching me for quite some time. I did my research on you and found out everything about you, it just never changed anything.”

Noir gasps, “You knew he was your son and yet you had him murder your opponents for your own selfish gain?”

Skull stomps his right foot down on the ground, “How much shittier can you get, old man?! What kind of asshole would treat anyone like that, let alone his son?!”

Shadow Shido laughs, “Akechi is a fool. He knew exactly what he was getting into, he just never knew that I was merely using him as a puppet and that I was going to dispose of him as soon as the elections were over.”

Crow grits his teeth and clenches his fist, trying hard not to lash out at Shadow Shido. The temptation to shoot him in the head then and there was overpowering, but knowing that everyone was watching him intently made him think twice, “You’re right. I am a fool for ever thinking that you deserved death. I was wrong, you deserve to grow a conscience and stand trial before everyone you have ever wronged!”

Shadow Shido smirks, “You pretend to be righteous and yet you’re still seeking out your revenge. I’ll give you one last chance, Akechi. Kill the Phantom Thieves and I may just allow you to live.”

Everyone turns to Crow, who pauses briefly before cackling, “This was never about self-preservation. Do you truly think you could change my mind by offering me a chance to live in a country shaped by the likes of you? I’d rather die at the hands of my cognition than help you.”

Shadow Shido turns to Joker, “Well then, if I have lost Akechi then perhaps you and your teammates would like to save yourselves and aid me in changing the hearts of the ignorant masses? They are mere cattle that need to be lead by those chosen by the Gods, those such as myself! With your power, we can change this nation. Will you accept my offer?”

“I decline,” Joker replies without hesitation.

“There’s no way we’d follow you!” Mona backs him up.

“No matter how many times you’d ask, our answers not gonna change!” Panther shouts.

The chamber begins to glow red as Shadow Shido clutches the sides of the stand, “It seems that the ignorant masses are doomed to remain as such… I thought you were smarter than that. This is unfortunate… I have no choice but to eliminate you all. A small leak will sink a great ship. Great nations have fallen to such lenience. I will not make such incautious mistakes!”

Suddenly thunderous applause erupt from behind them Phantom Thieves, and they turn to see how the previously empty benches were now filled with faceless politicians in suits, standing up and clapping in unison.

“There’s tons of them!” Mona says with wide eyes.

Shadow Shido holds out his arms to stop the clapping with a devious chuckle, and suddenly the Daruma begins to rise. Parts of a stage begin to rise around the chamber, and Fox is the first to jump on, followed by Noir, Panther, Queen, Joker, Skull, Mona and finally Crow.

Joker looks back to make sure everyone had gotten on safely, “Crow, Queen, Skull, with me!”

The Thieves jump onto to the highest stage where the Shadow Shido was becoming consumed by black and red shadows, eyes glowing bright yellow

“Let me make myself clear. Do not think of me as you do of my foolish son,” He says as he climbs a top a golden lion statue. When he turns around at the top, he’s wearing a militaristic uniform and helmet with spikes coming out of the top of it, cape flowing behind him, the outfit looking like a glorified version of Crows own outfit without wings, “Die, without further delay!”

“We’ve all gone through shit because of you!” Skull nods to Joker then points at Shido, “It’s on!” Joker and Queen both fall into a fighting stance, Crow and Skull falling in line with them a moment later.

The lion statue roars and lifts its front legs. When it comes down, the wind almost blows the Thieves away but they hold firm.

“There is no need for thieves in my mighty country. Only myself and the ones who revere me are needed.”

“Risking our lives to stop rotten adults… that why we’re Phantom Thieves!” Oracle declares, “Prometheus!” She shouts, and her persona appears, surrounding her. She rises above the front line, ready to provide support.

“Chi You!” Joker summons his persona first and throws a Psycho Force attack at the golden lion protecting Shadow Shido. The fight wages on, with Skull, Joker and Oracle providing support, Queen providing healing and support, and each of them using their magical abilities against the Beast of Human Sacrifice after Joker had discovered that it was capable of reflecting physical attacks.

When Queen takes serious damage from the Beast’s Arm of Destruction, Joker has her swap out with Mona, with Mona doing the same things that Queen previously was.

Despite Shadow Shido’s continued efforts and transformations, Crow is able to take down the Tomb of Human Sacrifice with his final Fall of Light bless attack, unique to his Icarus persona. The statue falls down and only then do the others notice that it was made up of individual golden statues of people.

None of them get a chance to comment on it as Shadow Shido climbs out from under the statue, still wearing the military uniform.

“Had enough yet?” Skull throws at Shadow Shido.

“Useless, ignorant masses!” Shadow Shido shouts at the statue.

Apparently not.

The statue turns to dust and Shadow Shido takes a couple of steps towards the Phantom Thieves, “In larger numbers I suppose anyone can be competent. So,” He look directly at Joker, “You’re the one behind all of this? Unifying them, turning my own son against me… You’re more than just a member of the Phantom Thieves, aren’t you?”

Joker reaches and carefully removes his mask, “Remember me?”

“Next time you try to sweep someone under the rug you better make sure to carry it out!” Panther exclaims.

Crow smirks, “Of course not that there will be a next time for you, Shido.”

“You…” Shadow Shido looks intently at Joker, “You’re the one I had incriminated on assault charges,” Shadow Shido scoffs, “To think fate would bring us all here together. Now I can kill two birds with one stone!”

With red and black flames, the militaristic outfit disappears, replaced by a shirtless Shadow Shido with raging muscles.

“What is it with your family and drama?” Skull mutters to Crow and he grits his teeth.

“He is merely my biological father. He is _not_ my family,” Crow assures him and takes a fighting stance, “Joker, let’s end this.”

Joker nods and places his mask back on his face, “Let’s go.”

Shadow Shido himself takes a fighting stance, raising both hands in front of him, “I... shall win this game!”

Apart from the ones that targeted everyone, most of Shadow Shido’s attack were directed at Crow and Joker. Taking the brunt of the damage, Joker decides to switch up tactics.

“Mona, Skull, fall back. Panther, Queen, you’re in,” He pulls out a Takemedic- Z and heals everyone from the previous attack, “Queen, I need you to raise our defence and heal us when necessary,” he jumps away from one of Shadow Shido’s attacks, “Panther, I’m switching to Satan. We’ll alternate between concentrating and using Hecate’s Blazing Hell and Satan’s Black Viper. Crow, you’re on support.”

No one argues with Joker’s orders and carries them out exactly like he had asked. With Panther and himself having two powerful persona’s at hand, it’s not long before Shadow Shido himself falls to the ground, defeated.

Red and black flames surround him once more, but this time he comes out looking like the regular Shido, only slightly beaten up. Crow turns around and begins walking away from the cognition. Noir puts a hand on his shoulder when he passes by her, “Won’t you listen to what he has to say?”

Crow looks away from her, “I’ve heard enough from him. I’ll be waiting at the other side of this stage.”

For reasons unknown to Crow, Noir removes her hand from his shoulder and lets him go. It would have been so easy for him to get away now. He achieved what he wanted to, he’d find out about Shido’s confession anywhere in the country and the Thieves would be powerless to do anything about it. Instead, he does exactly what he said he would and stays away from the rest of the group, observing them from afar.

He sees Shadow Shido saying something to Joker and at one point he even points to Crow, who then pretends not to have seen it. As nice a thought as it was, Crow knew he’d regret listening to Shido grovel. Watching him confess would be a lot more satisfying.

Before the Thieves even grab the treasure, Shido’s Shadow dissipates just as all the other shadows Crow had killed in the past. He quickly turns his head to see if anyone around had assassinated the shadow, but no one except for the Phantom Thieves seemed to be around. The entire Palace begins to shake, and Crow runs over to them, “What did you do?!”

“Nothing!” Mona shouts, “We didn’t even grab the treasure but everything seems to be falling apart!”

“This is no time for discussion,” Fox determines and grabs the steering wheel belonging to the ship, “We must leave this place at once!”

Once again in agreement, everyone jumps down from the stage and sprints to the exit. When they’re in the main hall, they realise their exit was already filling up with sea water. Crow looks around and quickly finds a solution, “This way!” He points in the direction of the bar.

“What’s going on?!” Queen shouts as they run through it, “Did we take it too far with Shido?!”

“No way!” Oracle shouts from the back, “That Shadow definitely had some health left!”

“Something must’ve happened in the real world!” Panther concludes and Crow leads them to the side deck of the sinking ship.

“Over there!” He points to a lifeboat hanging far above them, “It’s our only chance of escape!”

Panther leans forwards and holds onto the railing, as does the rest, “But how are we gonna get there?”

“I’ll go,” Skull says decidedly and jumps over the railing and onto the side of the ship which was now almost horizontal to the sea line. As he prepares to sprint, Crow also jumps over.

“Allow me to assist you!”

“No way, can you even sprint?!” Skull shouts.

“Do you honestly think I’d suggest this if I didn’t think I could keep up with you?” Crow asks, “We don’t have time for this pointless arguing! Let’s go!” He shouts and the two of them sprint to the edge. They jump at the same time and grab onto the lever on the other side, their combined weight pulling it down.

The boat drops next to Joker, who pulls it closer to the group. With his help, the Thieves get onto the boat.

“Hah! They did it! I, uh, sorry I underestimated you…” Skull trails off, glancing over to Crow.

Crow smiles and shakes his head, “We’re alive, are we not? That’s all I can- SAKAMOTO LOOK OUT!”

With the warning, Crow pulls Skull off the lever and throws him in the direction of the boat, towards the water. The rest of the ship explodes, throwing the Thieves out of the cognitive world and into the real one.

* * *

“Ryuji!”

“Akechi!”

“Ryuji!!!”

“Akechi!!!”

The group shouts their names in front of the Diet Building, oblivious to all the attention they were getting.

“They… are they…?” Ann asks, tears building up in her eyes.

“They… didn’t make it out…” Makoto confirms in a hollow voice, shocked.

Haru gasps, “No! It can’t be!”

“Dammit!” Akira hits the lamppost with the back of his fist.

Yusuke starts laughing, clearly distraught and unwilling to accept the circumstances, “I… I don’t know why I’m laughing… I…”

“They’re gone… really gone,” Futaba begins to sob.

“Who’s gone?” Ryuji asks, walking over to them with Goro leaning against his shoulder for support.

“You’re alive! Both of you!” Morgana jumps up excitedly, “How-?”

Ryuji motions to Goro with his head, “This guy threw me out as soon as he saw the explosions coming. I guess the wind from it all must’ve flung him outta there too.”

Ann strides over to him, wiping away her tears and slaps them both in the face, “How could you make us think you’d died?!”

Goro stands up on his own and rubs his cheek with his gloved hand, “I’m not quite sure whether I should be happy that you were worried about me or concerned.”

“Honestly?” Ryuji looks to Goro, also rubbing his cheek, “I’d be concerned either way.”

“Oh shut it both of you!”

In the back, Yusuke crouches down and picks up a small item off the ground, “A legislator’s pin…” he mutters.

All of the Thieves except for Goro and Akira gather around Yusuke to look at it. The Wildcards hang back.

“Thanks… you saved us back there,” Akira looks out to the rest of the group.

Goro, on the other hand, turns and looks at Akira, “I merely saved Sakamoto. I’m sure you would have been able to save yourselves without my help.”

Akira shakes his head, “If it weren’t for you giving us directions, we might’ve drowned inside. If you hadn’t run over with Ryuji, he might’ve died. And what you said to Shido about your lack of self-preservation makes me think that you didn’t do any of it for yourself.”

Goro grows silent and looks away. There’s a brief pause between Akira’s insinuation and his response, “Once Shido confesses, I’ll turn myself in. I promise you’ll never have to see me again,” he starts walking away, but Akira stops him by grabbing his arm.

“No. I was pissed off at you back in Mementos, and to be honest I’m still not over it, but there were some thing’s I took too far… more importantly right now, we still have unfinished business with Mementos and Morgana, and if you tell everyone about the existence of the Metaverse then I don’t know what it’ll do to the public’s cognition,” Akira lets go of Goro’s arm, “Will you stay and help us in finding out the truth?”

Goro turns around and looks Akira in the eye, “I won’t let you down. Not this time.”

* * *

Goro’s sore muscles call out to the bed of his apartment, tired not only from the battle but from sleeping on Akira’s tiny attic couch for a week. He opens the unlocked doors of his apartment. _Unsurprising given how late I was when I last left… I must have been completely disoriented back then._

Finally, with Shido’s heart stolen Goro had come to the conclusion that all of his associates would be more concerned over Shido than they would over his obvious betrayal, and so he decided that it was safe enough for him to move back.

With the sound of a gun clicking at the side of his head, Goro realises that he could not have been more wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuuuup I know I’m horrible :D


	10. Warriors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter contains some pretty graphic, violent scenes. If you’re uncomfortable with gore, blood and torture in general, then please scroll to the end of this chapter.
> 
> In the end notes I will try to provide a short description of the events that happened so those of you who would like to continue reading but would like to skip this chapter can still do so.
> 
> Also rated for Goro’s potty mouth.

Goro gasps loudly when he’s finally pulled out of the water and is able to breathe again. The relief is short lived when the rough looking man in a suit standing in front of him leans over his face, “Did you really think Shido didn’t have some sort of contingency against a little shit like you?”

Goro makes no effort to reply, his beaten up face pointing down. He’d been tied to a chair and relentlessly beaten before any of the thugs or even he had said anything, after which he was taken to his own bathroom where the thugs picked him up and thrust his face into the water overflowing his bathroom. Only then did any of them reveal who they worked for. Not that Goro had anyone else in mind.

“You think you’re gonna die here, don’t you?” The leader of the thugs stands straight and lights a cigarette, “Well you’re only part right. We’ll kill ya if you don’t tell us what we want to hear.”

“If you assholes think I’m going to tell you anything, you’ve got another thing coming,” Goro croaks out, earning himself a punch in the gut from one of the thugs.

The leader laughs, “Oh so you do have a mouth on ya! I like that kinda spunk. And here I thought all you were was that pretentious douche we’d seen on TV!” He leans closer to Goro again, the smoke from the cigarette filling his nose, “I have no idea why the fuck Shido wanted us to give you the rough treatment if things went south, but I’ll cut ya a deal. If you tell us who the Phantom Thieves are, we’ll only make sure that ya can’t go telling anybody about any of this, but you’ll live. Hell, you might still be able to walk again. How about it?”

“Eat shit.”

The thug laughs again, “You know, it’s a nice change of pace to hear this kinda talk from a kid like you so I’ll let you have a couple of days to think it over.”

Goro scoffs, “How generous. You might as well kill me now, I’m not telling you motherfuckers anything.”

“We’ll see,” the thug nods to the other two who pick up Goro again and dunk him into the bathtub.

* * *

Ryuji slurps his milkshake on Central street, having met up with Ann and Akira for a day out, “Anyone heard from Akechi? He kinda disappeared after yesterday. You don’t think he ran away, do you?”

Akira smirks, “I talked to him last night, it didn’t seem like he was going to leave any time soon. Why, is he growing on you?”

“Hell no,” Ryuji shakes his head, “I just… well the guy saved my life and I don’t like owing people those kinds of favours, ‘kay?”

Ann smiles, “I’m sure he’s just getting some rest, I mean yesterday must’ve been intense for him and he’s been sleeping on Akira’s couch for the past week. He’s fine, he’s probably just sleeping.”

* * *

Ann was half right.

Goro wakes up tied to his chair when he hears laughter coming from the other side of the room. There, the three thugs from the night before sit at his table, eating some sort of take away. Goro’s vision was still a little blurry but he was certain it was Big Bang Burger. Because that’s what he needed right now, a heavy conscience keeping him from forming an escape plan.

**_There’s a gun in your bedroom. You could kill them all._ **

He was beginning to wonder, hope even, if Loki had disappeared altogether judging by his silence. Clearly that wasn’t the case

 ** _They don’t seem to be paying attention to you, you could try sneaking out_** , Icarus suggests. _Great, a third voice in my head. I was hoping this one would be more quiet._

 ** _They haven’t taken your phone. You could try calling your friends_** , is Robin Hood’s idea.

They were all for naught. Before properly joining the Phantom Thieves, Goro had to dispose of all of his real weapons. He did have the gun in his room, but killing someone in the Metaverse and real world were two different things. For one, the gun wouldn’t work in quite the same way as it did there. Secondly, these were clearly professionals who probably had more shooting experience than he did.

Sneaking out ran the risk of being heard, and promptly shot. That was out.

Calling Akira or anyone else was possible but what could they do? Call the police? They were in Shido’s pocket too.

 _Phone…_ that had the Metaverse app which could be activated with just his voice and he could make his escape like that. But he didn’t have any names he could use to activate it.

He opens his mouth to whisper something, anything, but that’s when the thugs notice that he’s awake, “sleeping beauty’s finally up!” One of them says.

“I’m amazed someone like you knows of such a deeply philosophical tale as sleeping beauty,” he deadpans and inevitably provokes him.

“You mockin’ me?!” He says aggressively and pulls out a knife. Their leader holds his arm out in front of the thug.

“He’s been a detective since he started high school. Kid likes to play mind games, don’t let him get to ya,” The leader points out but grabs the knife, “but apparently no one was there to teach him to respect his elders,” the leaders walks over to him and presses the knife against his cheek, “You ready to talk?”

Goro give him a cocky grin, “Did you think a little water could change my mind?”

The leader quickly swipes the knife, cutting Goro’s left cheek just bellow his eye.

Goro inhales sharply, but otherwise doesn’t stop grinning, “didn’t you tell your colleagues not to, and I quote, ‘let him get to ya’?”

The leader backhands the detective which sends him falling to the floor with the chair. He looks back at his lackey’s, “Search the place and see if there’s anything in here worth beatin’ the kid with. He’s gone from cute to annoyin’ real fast and he’s startin’ ta piss me off.”

As the thugs start to pillage his apartment in search of blunt objects, the leader turns back to Goro, and pulls him and his chair back up, “One last chance kid, who are the Phantom Thieves?”

Goro turns his head when he hears a particularly loud clanking noise coming from his kitchen, and then turns his attention back to the leader. He spits out at him, blood and saliva covering the leader’s shoes, “You really are a moron if you think I’d double cross them again.”

The leader looks down at his shoe, then angrily back at Goro, “Oh you are seriously gonna regret that one.”

“Boss? We found this?” One of the thugs comes back, crowbar in hand. The leader grabs it and immediately slams it into Goro’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

The detective tries to cough but he barely manages to catch his breath when the leader hits him in the face with the crowbar. He tries to keep it in, unwilling to show the pain that they were causing him, but with the last hit, Goro cries out in agony. The beating continues relentlessly until Goro’s just barely conscious. Unfortunately, it seemed like they learned their lesson from last time.

The leader throws the crowbar away and pulls out his knife, “Oh just so ya know, none of your neighbours are around this week. So scream all ya want kid, but there ain’t anyone coming here to save you.”

Goro realises just how true that may have been as the leader cuts open Goro’s shirt with the knife, drawing blood. With the knife, he pulls his shirt open, revealing that it was full of bruises and old scars from his exploration in the metaverse.

“Huh, you really are somethin’ else. You’ve got some balls on ya, I’ll give you that. Let’s see how much good it’ll do ya.”

* * *

It’s the evening before the elections and instead of worrying about whether Shido would confess, Akira is considering whether to invite Goro over and watch the results with him. They hadn’t exactly gone back to being friends, let alone lovers again. This dilemma was mostly because he preferred having his own eye on the former Black Mask as much as he could. Mostly.

Hifumi slams down her piece on the board, “Check,” she looks up, “There’s no point in any further moves. Concede.”

Akira looks down at the board he’d barely been able to pay any attention to, “I concede.”

Hifumi sighs loudly, “If you aren’t going to be paying attention then there’s little point in me playing against you,” she looks around the church, “Perhaps a change of venue is in order.”

Akira shakes his head and looks down at his intertwined hands, “That wouldn’t help… I guess I’m just worried about someone that’s all,” He looks over to her, “I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”

“No, you didn’t waste my time at all,” Hifumi shakes her head, “If you need to, you can talk to me about this friend of yours. Maybe we could formulate a strategy to help you with those worries.”

 _It’s just like Hifumi to think that everything could be solved by planning out your moves and strategizing conversations_ , Akira thinks, “No it’s fine. How about this, I’ll try paying more attention now, and if you don’t think I’m giving it my all then I’ll buy you that book you saw in Jinchobo.”

Hifumi smiles, “We have a deal, Akira Kurusu.”

* * *

Goro didn’t know what hurt more. The knife in his leg, the bruises and cuts made by the crowbar they’d somehow found in his house, the gunshot wound in his foot or his pride.

_Actually, my pride’s still fine. Those asshole’s expect me to die this easy? They’ll have to try harder._

He coughs a little and on instinct he tries to hold his hand over his mouth but it’s tied to the chair behind him. _Still, it’s a lot more loose now then it was before…_

He slowly lifts his bloodied face to look over to his couch where the thugs were watching some show on TV that Goro didn’t recognise. Clearly engrossed, they don’t pay any attention to Goro. He could barely move as is.

Determined to break free, he shifts his hands around, seeing that he was able to move them almost freely, maybe even enough to break out.

_Not now. I’ll need a better opportunity._

* * *

Akira taps his foot nervously against the floor of Leblanc, and Futaba pounds her fist on the table in front of her, “Will you stop it already! You’ve been doing that for the past hour, what gives?!”

Akira looks up from his phone and stops tapping his foot, “Sorry, just nervous I guess.”

Futaba leans back in the booth, “the election results are tonight, huh? Wanna invite everyone over to watch? I mean whether we’re celebrating or crying it’s prolly best if we’re all together.”

Akira smirks, “True. I’ll text everyone and see what they think. Should I invite Goro too?”

“Hm…” Futaba hums, “Why not? Actually if he’s gonna have some sort of break down it’s probably best if we’re here to stop him going full psychotic or something.”

“Not sure that’s how it works…” Akira mumbles as he starts typing out the text.

Futaba simply shrugs, “We’ll see.”

> Coffee Boi: **Guys got a question.**
> 
> Coffee Boi: **Actually first should we invite Goro back into this group chat?**
> 
> Inari: **I suppose if you think we will still require his assistance then it would be more convenient.**
> 
> Kitty Woman: **It’s not like we’re hiding anything from him anymore anyway.**
> 
> Vulgar Ape: **Might as well.**
> 
> Beauty Thief: **It would make this simpler.**
> 
> Alibabae: **Nahhhh**

Akira looks up from his phone, unamused by Futaba’s trolling expression, “Futaba…” She only rolls her eyes and goes back to her phone.

> Alibabae: **jk I don’t really care.**
> 
> Coffee Boi: **@Makoto?**
> 
> **…**
> 
> Shoulder Pads: **Sorry I was busy.**
> 
> Shoulder Pads: **If you think that’s the best course of action, go ahead.**
> 
> Vulgar Ape: **Ooooh first…**
> 
> **_Ryuji Sakamoto changed Akira Kurusu’s nickname to ‘Criminal Trash’_ **
> 
> Alibabae: **AHAHAHAHAHAHAH**

“Seriously?” Akira looks up with a little smile on his face, “Rude.”

> Criminal Trash: **I don’t approve of this.**
> 
> Alibabae: **Ignore him he’s totally laughing irl**
> 
> **_Akira Kurusu added Goro Akechi into the group chat._ **
> 
> Criminal Trash: **Liar.**
> 
> Criminal Trash: **Sorry not you, Goro.**
> 
> Criminal Trash: **Futaba’s just telling lies.**
> 
> Alibabae: **Oh yeaaah? Have any proof?**
> 
> Criminal Trash: **Do you?**
> 
> **_Futaba Sakura sent suckit.jpg to the group chat._ **

Akira wasn’t entirely sure how Futaba managed to snap a picture of him while typing out messages and laughing at the same time but she’d apparently done it.

> Criminal Trash: **Traitor**
> 
> Shoulder Pads: **Not to get us back on track or anything, but what did you want to ask us? @Akira**
> 
> Criminal Trash: **Well since Shido still hasn’t confessed, do you guys wanna come to Leblanc and watch the elections? Maybe something will show up then.**
> 
> **_Futaba Sakura changed Goro Akechi’s nickname to ‘Low-Keeeey’_ **
> 
> Shoulder Pads: **I’m free this evening.**
> 
> Beauty Thief: **As am I.**
> 
> Vulgar Ape: **Same.**
> 
> Inari: **I shall meet you all there.**
> 
> Kitty Woman: **Yup me too, see you guys there!**

* * *

The thugs seemed to be getting bored with Goro as far as he could tell. They pulled the knife out of his leg and cut his chest up a little more, but it was nothing compared to the treatment they had given him the day before.

Goro would’ve celebrated if he didn’t know it meant he was running out of time.

Eventually, the leader of the thugs walks over to him and pulls out a gun. He points it to Goro’s chest, “alright, Shido wanted us to get this done before the elections were over so it’s your last chance. Who are the Phantom Thieves?”

Goro mumbles out something unclear, which was mostly due to the injuries he sustained.

“Speak up!” The leader shouts and when Goro tries to, his reply is completely unclear, “What?”

The thug leans in closer.

“…a…e….ov….r…” The thug hears Goro try to say.

“Goddammit what?” He grabs Goro by the collar and brings him to his face,

“Game over,” Goro smirks and in one swift movement, he headbutts the leader in the nose, pulls his hands out from behind him and wrenches the gun out of the leader’s hand. Without a moments hesitation, he releases the safety and pulls the trigger when aiming at the leaders head.

The sight of the bullet entering and leaving the man’s head at point blank almost makes Goro sick, but with the help of the adrenaline running through his veins, he ignores the sick feeling and the pain, training the gun on the second thug. He shoots him in the chest, and the last thug in the shoulder, missing his chest the first time, and then the chest.

With all of the thugs dead on the ground, he stumbles out into the hallway of his apartment and into the lift, still clutching onto the gun. He presses the button for the bottom floor and pulls out his phone.

“Call… Sae… Niijima…” he manages to get out and somehow his phone somehow understands him because next thing he knows is he’s talking to Niijima on the phone.

“Akechi why are you-,”

“No time… pick me up from… argh!” He grunts when a sharp pain passes through his side. One of his wounds must’ve reopened.

“Akechi what’s going on?!”

“I’m at my place… no matter how I look… take me to Leblanc… don’t trust hospital…”

He gets out, and he’s lucky that his street was empty because he collapses on the ground the moment the cold air hits him. Still somehow conscious, he ends his call and finds a text from the group chat about showing up to Leblanc.

He’s awake for long enough to type out three letters and send the message to them.

‘ **OMW** ’

* * *

The second Akira’s phone buzzes he pulls it out of his pocket. As expected, it was a text from Goro, who by now was almost an hour late.

‘ **OMW** ’, Akira read, which makes him raise an eyebrow. Goro never abbreviated, and Akira doubted that it was some new side of Goro he hadn’t known about. There were enough of those already. Something was definitely up.

His suspicions take the worst turn possible when Sae barges into the café with Goro hanging off of her shoulder, face bruised, shirt ripped up and covered in blood and his wrists looking exactly like his own the day of the interrogation.

“Someone help me!” Sae shouts, struggling to keep Goro up while he falls in and out of consciousness.

Makoto, Haru and Ryuji all jump in and help get Goro into a booth. Ann pulls out her phone but Sae bats it out of her hand.

“Don’t call the hospital, that was one of the instructions he gave me and I’m sure he had his reasons,” Sae explains quickly and looks to Sojiro, “Is there anyone you know we can trust that could help him?”

“There’s Takemi’s clinic down the road-,” Sojiro begins and Futaba is practically out the door already, followed by Yusuke.

“We will get her here immediately,” he states and leaves the café. Sojiro looks outside and flips the sign to read ‘Closed’.

Even Morgana runs outside to make sure Sae wasn’t being followed but Akira stands at the end of the bar in shock, unable to say anything or do anything besides taking note of each individual bruise and scar that littered Goro’s body.

Akira didn’t want Goro around for surveillance.

Akira needed Goro to stay in the café, away from Shido.

Akira needed Goro alive and he didn’t realise it until it may have been too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary:
> 
> Upon returning to his house, Goro finds three men who proceed to torture him over information on the phantom thieves.
> 
> Meanwhile, Akira spends some time with Ann and Ryuji in town, with Hifumi playing Shogi and later with Futaba at Leblanc where he decides to add Goro back into the group chat before asking everyone to come to Leblanc to watch the election results.
> 
> Goro is able to escape but has to kill his captors, and calls Sae Niijima for help, asking her not to take him to the hospital. She brings him to Leblanc on the night of the elections and everyone rushes to help, deciding to take Goro to Takemi’s clinic while Akira tries to snap out of his shock.


	11. Pieces of the People We Love

With Sojiro’s help, Takemi is able to get Goro into a wheelchair and out of the café. She takes Akira with her back to her clinic and doesn’t let anyone else into the exam room.

“Move him onto the bed and take off his clothes,” she commands him as she grabs a large roll of paper and unfurls it onto the bed while Akira tries to pick up Goro’s limp body to place it on the bed.

Akira carefully removes Goro’s jacket, finding it much heavier than expected, and continues with his gloves, tie and shirt. He hesitates when he tries to take off his shoes.

“Takemi… there’s a bullet wound…” he informs her while she’s preparing disinfectant. She looks over and rolls her eyes.

“What kind of person were you messing with this time?” She grabs some pincers and a face mask, “Leave them on for now, I don’t want to risk him bleeding out in my clinic. I’ll seriously have to insist on you taking him to the hospital as I’m not prepared to carry out any kind of surgery. But if you insist on me treating him here, I’ll need you here to act as my assistant and follow through all of my order no question asked, got it?”

Akira nods, and Takemi gets down to business, “Do you know what blood type he is?”

Silently, he shakes his head, so Takemi points to Goro’s discarded jacket, “Check his wallet. He may have his details in there.”

Akira picks the jacket up and looks through the pockets. The first thing he comes across is the large object weighing the jacket down. It’s a pistol, and it’s covered in blood. He didn’t want to think about who’s blood it was.

Deciding that any questioning was best moved to a later date, he moves on and looks for his wallet. He finds it eventually and looks through it. The ever meticulous Goro did indeed have a card inside with his blood type on it, amongst other medical details, “AB negative,” Akira says.

“It’s incredibly rare in Japan, so I don’t have it here. Go ask your friends if any of them know if they have that type,” she orders, disinfecting the worst of Goro’s chest cut wounds.

Akira practically flies out of the exam room and almost runs into Makoto who was standing closest to the door. Everyone else was in the waiting room as well except for Sae, who he assumed was dealing with the situation outside of the clinic.

“Are any of you AB negative?”

“AB what?” Ryuji asks, confused.

Ann shakes her head, “It’s a blood type, and no I’m B.”

“My blood type is A…” Haru trails off and looks down. Everyone else also shakes their head, except for Futaba who hesitantly steps forwards.

“I… I’m AB negative. I’m terrified of needles but if it’ll save his life… then I’ll do it,” she says and Akira takes her hand. He pulls her into the exam room and closes the door behind him.

“She’s got his blood type.”

* * *

Goro opens his eyes to a familiar courtroom shaded blue, with the long-nosed man sitting in the Judge’s stand and the twin guards standing on either side of the court. As usual, the jury’s bench and seats behind him were empty.

_The Velvet Room. A courtroom where I am guilty to proven innocent. A place in which I must prove my innocence on my own before a verdict is reached._

Igor chuckles behind the stand, “In the end, choosing to side with the Phantom Thieves is leading to the end of your trial. It appears as though your life is forfeit… but these are merely appearances. A verdict has not yet been reached.”

“If you play your cards correctly, you may still survive,” Justine informs him.

“Play my cards correctly? End of my trial?” Goro questions, “Shido would have had me killed no matter whose side I was on! Wasn’t my fight against my father the verdict you spoke of when we first met?”

Igor shakes his head, “That is yet to come.”

“If you die in the real world, you’ll never be able to ascertain the truth,” Caroline explains, “Your trial will be over and you will be deemed guilty. Is this the ending you truly wish for?”

Goro looks away from Igor, “I… No. What should I do?”

Igor chuckles once again, “The Phantom Thieves will only lead you astray. They only knew who to target under your instruction, and yet in the end it may have all been for naught. They cannot judge society the same way you are able to.”

“You… you want me to continue causing psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns? To what end?”

Igor leans forwards, “Your entire world is out of order, and you are the only one who may bring true justice into this society. You must be the judge, jury and executioner. This is the only way that your trial can come to a satisfactory conclusion.”

* * *

They’re well into the early hours of the morning when Takemi finally announces that she’s done. Since he was dropped off in the booth at Leblanc, Goro hadn’t regained consciousness, but Takemi reassured everyone that he was going to be okay.

“If I could, I’d like to keep him here for observation but I don’t have the equipment for it nor the place and time,” she looks back at him through the small window frame, “Take him back to Leblanc, make sure he get’s plenty of rest and doesn’t open up his stitches. If anything happens at any hour, call me and I’ll be right over, got it?”

When the others nod, she hands Akira a bin bag which contained all of Goro’s belongings, “I couldn’t get anything else so this’ll have to do. Do you have some spare clothing you can give him?”

Akira nods, “I’ll find something. Thank you for this, Takemi, and for keeping it quiet.”

Takemi chuckles, “What else am I here for? Since finding out about your escapades as Phantom Thieves I’ve been expecting something like this to happen… maybe not on this scale.”

“We’ll help get him out of here. C’mon Yusuke,” Ryuji waves to him and opens the door to the exam room, Yusuke following.

Ann, Haru, and Makoto head for the exit, “We’ll make sure that there’s no one out on the street and give you the all clear,” the latter says.

Futaba nods and grabs the bag from Akira, “We’ll get the attic ready and use the laundromat while no one’s there. Let’s go, Akira.”

* * *

After everyone’s helped with Goro, the Phantom Thieves sans Futaba and Akira go to school. Akira refuses to leave Goro’s bed and Sojiro calls up Kawakami to tell her that he was down with the flu. He didn’t have the heart to make him go to school that day, nor did he think that Akira could even concentrate on his studies if he did go.

While everyone returns to school, Futaba uses the clips of Goro’s recorded phone calls to modulate her own voice to sound like his over the phone. She makes it sound more raspy than usual and calls Goro’s school, informing them that he wasn’t feeling well enough to make it to school as he had most likely come down with the flu and was bedridden.

Once she’s done, she informs Akira of what she did and quickly leaves the café. He assumes it’s to finally get some rest, but he doesn’t question her on it. He later gets a text from Ryuji saying how they were all gonna come down later to watch the election results and study for exams.

For the next six hours or so, Akira is left alone with a shirtless Goro in his bed. This was hardly the first time he’d seen his ex-boyfriend without a shirt on, but whenever there was an occasion in which Goro had his shirt off, Akira was a little busier on concentrating on everything else going on rather than the details of his skin. Even after everything was over, the two of them would usually fall asleep with clothes on.

Now he has a little more time to observe each of the scars which weren’t covered by bandages on Goro’s chest, many of them certainly not from his most recent misfortune. Knowing what he knows now, Akira distracts himself by coming up with various stories behind each scar and scrape. None of them had a particularly nice ending, but no stories involving Goro Akechi ever seemed to end well.

Akira sincerely hopes that this one would.

He leans forward, and trails his fingers lightly down a particularly long scar, starting just bellow his heart, going beneath some bandages and ending at his right side.

“Enjoying yourself?”

Akira pulls away instantly when he hears the faint voice coming from the boy in front of him. He glances over to Goro’s sleepy face, then sits up in his chair, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

Goro chuckles lightly, which is quickly followed by a cough and a frown induced by the pain coming from across his chest, “How bad is it?”

Akira shrugs, acting as nonchalant as ever despite both of the boys knowing he was feeling anything but, “You’ll live. You’re mostly fine, you’ve got a bunch of stitches, couple of broken ribs, but you’ll have some difficulty with your left leg since you’ve got some nerve damage. So no bouldering or cycling for you any time soon… or ever… it’s kinda permanent.”

Goro inhales deeply, clearly taking the news much better than Akira had expected, “I suppose if this is the kind of punishment I get for what I’ve done then I can live with that,” he pulls his hands from under the blanket and rubs his eyes, “What day is it?”

“December 19th.”

Goro tries to sit up, but Akira’s movements are much quicker and he lightly pushes him down on part of Goro’s shoulder where he had no visible injuries, “Oh no, no, no. You’re not going anywhere. Sae’s agreed to help. As for Shido… well, he’s apparently confessed to everything but he still won the election. He’s taken all of the responsibility on himself and didn’t implicate you in any of it.”

Goro smirks bitterly, “As much as I would like to think that he did it out of the kindness of his changed heart, I’m certain that he merely forgot to mention me as one of my accomplices. I suppose I should be grateful that even in his confession Shido forgot about his own son.”

“Goro…” Akira trails off.

“I’ve heard before that revenge doesn’t quite have the satisfying ending that you want it to… however, this feels different. It feels as though nothing has changed,” Goro sighs and neither of the boys notice the girl at the stairs until she speaks up.

“Because nothing _has_ changed,” Futaba walks over with her laptop in her hand. She opens it up and plays Shido’s confession for Goro, shutting up Akira by putting a finger to his lips when he tries to stop her.

Once it’s over, Akira and Futaba both look over to Goro, waiting to get any kind of emotional reaction from him. Instead, he remains calm and collected, “What does the public have to say about all of this?”

Futaba and Akira both shake their heads, “Nothing good. They’re still supporting Shido and don’t really believe he’s done anything wrong,” Futaba explains, “Support for the Phantom Thieves is at an all time low right now.”

Goro clenches his fist as tightly as he can, which wasn’t very much in his condition, “I doubt even confessing myself would change anything, the public would simply think that the Phantom Thieves changed my heart and forced me to confess. What does Sae-san have to say about this?”

“She told us before that she’ll do her best when it comes to gathering a case but…” Akira trails off, assuming that with his experience of the criminal justice system, Goro knew what he was getting at.

Goro opens his mouth to finish Akira’s sentence but he’s interrupted by the sound of glass crashing from downstairs.

“Everyone’s downstairs. Makoto says we’ve got to do well in our exams so she’s making us study. We called in sick for you and since you’re on bed rest anyway, we decided that it would be best to deal with all of this after our exams,” Akira promptly explains.

Goro nods slowly, “A wise decision, I’m sure. However, I would like to go downstairs myself. I could use the distraction, and perhaps I could help you all with your studies.”

Futaba frowns, “I’m… not so sure that’s a great idea. Sojiro’s downstairs and he’s not exactly happy to have you back under this roof.”

“He’s had to deal with one criminal all year, I’m sure he can deal with another one for less than that,” Akira shrugs, but neither Futaba nor Goro are convinced since that wasn’t the part they were most concerned about, “I’ll go talk to him,” he stands up and walks downstairs to bargain with the café owner.

Futaba awkwardly hangs around upstairs, “So… uh…”

Goro holds himself back from grinning, reminded of just how socially anxious Futaba still could be around him, “Is something on your mind, Sakura-chan?”

“You’ve got my blood in you,” Futaba blurts out without first giving an explanation, “I think I can live with you calling me Futaba.”

“Oh..” Goro looks away, quickly understanding that Futaba had donated some of her blood to him while he was half dead, “Uh, very well… thank you, Futaba-chan.”

“Mm,” Futaba nods, humming, “I… I guess I do have a question…” she looks away from Goro too, “Did… did you talk to my mums shadow when you…” she trails off.

“She loved you, Futaba,” Goro nods, looking back to her, “Her only concern was for your own safety, not hers or her own research. She never blamed you for her death.”

“Oh…” Futaba tilts her head forwards, “I… uh… I should go,” she says quickly and makes a beeline for the stairs. Goro holds his arm out and leans forwards on the bed in an attempt to stop her.

“Oh there’s one more-,” But Futaba’s already running down the stairs, “Another time perhaps,” Goro sighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this before Atlus changed Futaba’s blood type to just AB, but I’m sticking to it anyway.
> 
> On a different note, I went to London comic con today as Crow and got my boyfriend to go as Joker it was awesome (though all of the persona 5 merch got sold out by then...)


	12. Paradise City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro tries to convince Akira that he’s ready to help once again.

“I’m going with you,” Goro insists in Leblanc, following Akira to the door in a t-shirt and pyjama bottoms.

“Not like that you aren’t,” Morgana smirks, popping his head out from Akira’s bag.

Goro holds himself steady against the counter and the elderly couple sitting at one of the booths look over curiously. They recognise the detective prince, but other than choosing his words carefully, he doesn’t pay them much attention, “You left this establishment when everyone believed you were gone. Why shouldn’t I have that privilege too?”

Akira quickly glances over to the elderly couple quickly avert their eyes, pretending like they weren’t listening in on the drama unfurling before them, “Do I honestly have to explain? For one, you can’t even walk properly.”

Goro, determined like never before to prove someone wrong, hobbles over to the umbrella stand where he finds a long discarded cane that had made Leblanc it’s home, “I can use this. What’s your next reason?”

“You’ll get recognised instantly.”

“I’ll borrow your hoodie and wear it outside,” Goro throws back at him, “Akira, I have been stuck in your attic for almost a week now. I have complied with everything you asked of me without complaint. At the very least I can provide you all with insight into Shi-,” He cuts himself off when he remembers the nosy couple, “my fathers inner circle, or knowledge about the other world.”

Akira purses his lips, thinking it over. If anyone’s going to be useful in this situation, it’s Goro, but closing down Leblanc once again, especially with the police keeping a close eye on Sojiro would be too suspicious in these circumstances, “I’ll wait outside for ten minutes. If you’re not done by then, I’m leaving.”

* * *

While the group stands in a semi-circle in the Shibuya underground hideout, Goro stands behind them all, leaning against the railing and watching the news on Shido while the rest discussed what was going on.

“He’s hardly in poor health,” Goro tilts his head backwards, looking over to the Phantom Thieves behind him, “His associates are most likely concerned that they’ll be caught up in scandal.”

“What?!” Ann exclaims, looking down at her phone, “Guys, check out the Phan-Site!”

Along with the rest, Goro pulls out his phone and checks the blog. After reading some concerning comments, he looks up the Phantom Thieves and finds some even more worrying articles, “It gets worse,” he turns around and shows them the news.

Makoto reads aloud, “The changes of heart, accidents and scandals were mere coincidences that the group calling themselves the Phantom Thieves were using to their advantage. No proof has been found to contradict this.”

Yusuke picks it up from there, “Goro Akechi, the most outspoken investigator of the Phantom Thieves has remained silent since his last interview about his capture of their leader. We speculate that he is looking into the recent scandals, however as of this publication, no statement was released by the Detective Prince.”

Haru frowns, “They’re acting as if the Phantom Thieves never existed!”

“The hell?!” Ryuji stomps his foot, “You’re tellin’ me that they seriously don’t care that Shido confessed to all that crap?! It ain’t right.”

Makoto shakes her head and rubs the front of her forehead with her finger and her thumb, “That’s not our only problem. If no one believes in the Phantom Thieves anymore then it may not be possible for us to change anyone else’s heart.”

Ann agrees, nodding, “Even if Shido steps down, one of his old cronies will probably step up and carry on with whatever plan Shido had for this country.”

Morgana catches everyone’s attention from the ground, “There’s nothing we can do right now. We’ll have to wait and hope that Makoto’s sister will have something for us.”

* * *

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing more I can do,” Sae shakes her head. They’d returned to Leblanc by closing time only to have Sae text Makoto with the bad news, “That’s why... I want to ask you for help. I’m in no position to ask this of you, but if there’s any way you could do something-,”

“That doesn’t matter to us,” Ann says, “But we’re at our wits end too.”

“Perhaps we could try to change the hearts of Shido’s followers?” Yusuke suggests.

Sitting at the bar with his favourite coffee in front of him, Goro shakes his head, “There isn’t enough time, and even if there were, Shido has far too many followers, many of whom will have Palaces of their own.”

“So we got nothing,” Futaba slumps in her booth.

Everyone looks down, deep in thought, trying to figure out their next steps. Only Goro and Akira look to the chair Morgana was sitting on, as the cat clearly had something on his mind.

“...Mementos,” the cat voices, “There might be something we can do in Mementos.”

“Huh?” Ryuji looks up from his glass of coke, “What are you talking ‘bout?”

“Like I said before, Mementos is the Palace of the collective subconscious,” Morgana explains and Goro interrupts.

“Do you think that there is a treasure in the depths of Mementos?” Everyone turns to him as if expecting more, “I... when I was helping Shido, I reached the end of the path.”

“You got into the depths?!” Ryuji jumps out of his seat.

“Not quite,” Goro sets down his cup of coffee and turns around completely, “As we saw, there are trains going down into the depths on tracks parallel to the ones we use. I reached a part of Mementos where those trains stopped, and those indivoduals on them departed the trains. However, I was unable to progress any further. Perhaps now it will be possible.”

“We should go there as soon as possible,” Makoto says, now looking to Akira, “As always, it’s up to you but I don’t think we’ve got time to waste.”

Akira pulls out his phone to check the time, “I’ll gather some medical supplies tonight and grab some stuff from Iwai tomorrow. We’ll meet at the station square after school.”

“We are all in agreement on this issue, yes?” Haru asks just to be certain.

Yusuke nods, “It seems to be our only choice, I have no doubt that we all agree this is the best course of action.”

* * *

After getting the best weapons he could with the money he had from Iwai and the Velvet Room, Akira walks down Central Street carrying a black bag full of fake weapons. He finds everyone waiting for him in the underground access way and pulls out his phone.

“Let’s go.”

As soon as he enters everything into the Nav, the entire station becomes distorted and their clothing changes to the Thieves regular attire.

Joker pulls out all of the weapons that he’d bought and passes them out. When he hands Crow a cane he overhears his conversation with Skull.

“You sure you can do this?” Skull asks, looking at his cane.

Crow examines the cane and quickly realises what it really was. He pulls on the end of it, revealing a rapier, “I assure you, I will not slow us down. If anyone, it is you who is holding us up, Skull.”

“Me?!” He shouts, loud as always, “I’m ready to go get this… what exactly are we gettin’ anyway? How we gonna know what the public’s treasure looks like?”

“I’ll know it when I see it,” Mona turns into a car and drives up to the entrance, “Joker, let’s go.”

“Right.”

* * *

As much as he disliked it, Crow was made to stay in the backup team with Noir, Morgana and Skull, never once being called into the front lines despite having one of the most powerful persona’s out of the group, especially against the Shadows they encountered.

Joker was doing this on purpose, or he was too distracted by the sight of the depths of Mementos. Every cognition around them was imprisoned, but they all appeared to feel better for it. Escaping from the guards of the prison, they run into a larger cell and come across  the Phantom Thieves’ former targets.

“Kamoshida?!” Panther shouts, pointing to the gym teacher behind the bars.

“Sens- Madarame is here too…” Fox says and the artist turns around to look at them, standing next to Kamoshida.

“There’s Kaneshiro,” Queen points to the mob boss

“Shido,” Crow mumbles, walking over to were Shido was sitting behind the bars, a ball chain around his ankle, “What are you doing here?”

“More importantly, why are you over there?” Shido throws back at him, “In the Prison of Regression we are all free from desire, free of the burden of thought. Here we are free from having to make any decisions, free from having to think for ourselves.”

Oracle frowns, “Is… is this what happened to everyone who’s hearts we changed?”

Queen shakes her head, “No, I don’t think this is because of what we’ve done.”

Joker puts a hand on Noir, who was being particularly silent in this situation and he knew exactly why. Her father was the only one missing in this group.

“Okumura cannot join us here. I’m sorry,” Shido says to her, standing up, “Nothing can be done for the dead.”

“Yes, I know that,” Noir replies in a bitter tone. She looks over to the other prisoners, “But you never answered Crow’s question. What are you all doing here? What happened when we destroyed your Palaces?”

“Fools such as myself and the others were unable to stay in this place. Warped by dark desires, they were locked in Palace’s of their own mind,” Shido explains.

Everyone turns their attention to the other three known prisoners when Kamoshida speaks up, “I should thank you all… without your help, I never would’ve gotten to come back here.”

Fox looks away, “This… Is this our fault?”

Crow turns away from Shido, “No. These people are no longer capable thinking for themselves. This is not a power any of us could have created. If the cognition of the public is a prison, then there must be someone keeping them here.”

“Don’t you understand?” Shido interrupts him, “If this is the cognition of the public, then shouldn’t it be obvious that the ruler’s of this place are all the members of the general public? Haven’t you learned anything in school? The collective ruler of a democratic country is its people.”

“I suppose I was too busy helping your twisted agenda to learn anything useful,” Crow mutters bitterly.

“Don’t listen to him, Crow!” Skull shouts, “He’s obviously lyin’! I mean, if they’re happy to be here, why they gotta have prisoners guarding this place?”

As if summoned, the mementos guards come running after them from the corridor they had just left, “Over there! What are you doing out of your cell? Get them!”

“We should run!” Panther calls out, but instead Joker pulls out his knife, and Crow explains for him.

“They will only continue their pursuit until we reach the depths. If we fight them now, we’ll have less trouble later,” he pulls his sword out of it’s sheath, and Joker calls him, Mona and Skull to the frontlines.

“Ardha!” Joker summons and attempts to use a Cosmic Flare attack on the guardians. It does some damage, but doesn’t weaken any of them. The guardians begin their attack, each one of them attacking everyone but Crow.

When Mona casts his garudyne ability, the guardians are weakened and he leads an all out attack. The guardian angels disappear in a gust of black and red smoke.

Crow sheathes his sword, “Those shadows… Was I the only one who noticed that they specifically avoided attacking me?”

“You’re… It’s probably just coincidence,” Skull replies, though its clear in his voice that even he’s not sure if that was true, “I guess we’ll find out if we just keep on going, right Joker?”

“Right,” Joker nods, “Lets go.”


	13. Radioactive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Phantom Thieves discover the Holy Grail.

The team stops when they finally reach what appeared to be the final section of the depths. All that stood before them was a large, round temple with only one way to get inside it.

Just as Crow had implied earlier, none of the Shadows they fought along the way attacked him, instead choosing to attack all of the other teammates. Whatever connection he may have to this place would soon be discovered, he determined.

“I suppose this is the end then,” He breaks the silence when no one else does, “Mona, we will find the treasure in there, correct?”

Mona nods, and replies in the same calm tone he’d been using since entering the depths and slowly regaining his memories, “Yes. I’m sure of it. This is the deepest part of Mementos.”

“We should proceed with caution,” Noir says, and pulls out a Takemedic-Z, which she uses on everyone.

“It’s all or nothing, huh?” Queen mutters, “Joker, let us know when you’re ready.”

Joker turns around to face the large building in front of them, “This is our last chance to make things right. Lets go.”

They all run after him into the temple and cautiously jump down the stairs inside which lead them to the middle of the temple. All around the walls were individual cells, similar to the ones they found along the way. In the middle of it all was a large cup with tubes coming out from the top and leading up, possibly even all the way to the entrance of Mementos itself. The only other things around were two hands on either side of the cup coming out of the ground.

“Are these… all prison cells?” Fox asks, pointing to the hundreds of cells surrounding them.

“More importantly, what’s that thing in the middle?” Noir asks, looking at the cup, which upon closer look had lights shinning out of it.

“Whatever it is, it looks disgustingly grand,” Panther says.

Crow looks around the temple, then back through the way they came, “Mona, this is far larger than any treasure we have encountered. Are you certain that we have reached our destination?”

Mona points to the cup, “there’s no doubt in my mind. This is the treasure of the public. If we get rid of it…” Mona pauses, and shakes his head as if he were trying to get rid of a troubling thought, “if we get rid of it, then the public should come to it’s senses.”

“There’s no way we’ll carry that outta here,” Skull says, “We only gotta make it disappear right? Then we’ll just hafta destroy it.”

Mona nods, “That should work.”

Panther frowns, “Once we destroy it, the whole Metaverse will disappear, right?”

“Good riddance,” Crow mutters, and the light emanating from the cup changes from white to red. The inmates behind the cells become restless as well.

“Looks like we’ve been discovered,” Oracle points out the obvious and looks to the inmates, “they… they don’t sound very happy.”

“No, but there’s something else that’s been troubling me…” Queen trails off and everyone turns their attention to her, “Shido made it sound like the public wants to stay captive here. If that is truly the case, then why have guards at all? Someone must be in charge of sending out such an organised force.”

“That would mean that it is not the public who is the collective ruler of this Palace, but someone else,” Fox summarises.

An alarm sounds from somewhere within the temple, bringing everyone’s attention back to the cup.

“What was that?!” Skull shouts.

“It doesn’t matter!” Mona replies, “We just have to get rid of that. We can’t lose now.”

Everyone immediately falls into position when Joker summons his first persona, with Crow, Skull and Queen remaining on the frontline as they had for their last battle and everyone else falls behind,

“Odin!” Joker shouts and concentrates on his next attack. Meanwhile, the others work on passive abilities, with Crow finally using a bless attack on the cup. The cup resists his attack and shoots an arrow of light at Skull, who, with his defence up, takes a much lighter hit.

Joker uses his Wild Thunder ability on the cup and it takes heavy damage. Queen and Skull follow suite and also do more damage while Crow’s abilities barely seem to scratch the surface, “Queen, is it immune to bless attacks?”

She shakes her head at Crows question, “I’m not sure… Joker?”

“On it. Cybele!” He shouts and uses a Makougaon attack which deals regular heavy damage to the cup, “It’s just yours. Try using a physical attack next!”

Skull uses charge while Queen uses Diarahan on everyone in case the treasures next attack were to deal significant damage. Crow opts to use Sword Dance, which the cup also resists, “My attacks… they aren’t working…”

The cup sends out another ray of light, now directed at Queen. She manages to dodge it, and when Joker gets the chance, he switches out his persona once more to deal a physical attack, “Ongyo-Ki!” he summons and uses Myriad Slashes, which also deal regular damage to the cup.

“It’s resistant to your attacks, Crow, fall back!” Oracle shouts, and hesitantly, Crow swaps out with Noir. They continue to fight the cup, everyone dealing regular damage until they’re sure it can’t take another hit.

“Stop it!” They hear a man shout from one of the cells.

“Don’t touch the Holy Grail!” Another woman shouts.

“The… Holy Grail?” Oracle mutters, meanwhile the tubes connecting to the cup begin to shine, and it regains all of it’s health, “What? It’s used the strength of the people to heal itself!”

“Argh!” Skull groans, “We won’t get anywhere like this!”

All around them, a sinister, godlike laugh sounds around them, “You fools. Human, yet wishing to eradicate the desires of humanity.”

“It… talks…?!” Crow says quietly, bewildered.

“Repent!” The voice shouts.

“The treasure… can talk?” Queen repeats, everyone else remaining silent from surprise.

“I am revered as the granter of dreams for all who behold me. A being most commonly known as the Holy Grail. The Prison of Regression is representative of the collective desires of humanity. They wish to be chained down, surrender their cognition, and neglect the world around them. These feebleminded commonfolk will make your ‘social reform’ all for naught. The shared heart of the masses has fallen into an excess of indolence and transformed into a prison.”

With the Holy Grail’s speech, the inmates start to become rowdy again, insulting the Phantom Thieves and worshipping the Grail with their cries.

“The Holy Grail… it is a god to these inmates,” Crow mumbles, and Skull agrees with him.

“They’re worshipping that thing!”

The Holy Grail continues, “Thus, the only suitable end for them is to perish within the prison they wished for themselves,” the Grail lights up even more than it had before.

“Get ready, here it comes!” Mona shouts just before Joker gets hit with the arrow of light that the Holy Grail shot at him.

“Mada!” He summons, using Blazing Hell on the Grail, and the fight wages on, with the rest of the Phantom Thieves cheering them on and Oracle providing support wherever she can.

When the team deal more damage to the Grail it heals itself once again. This time, Oracle notices something different, “Has it changed colour…?” She mutters, “Keep going!”

“Kohryu!” Joker tries, using Psycho Force on the Grail. Despite the team dealing major damage to the Grail, it remains unmoved, and heals once more. It becomes more noticeably brighter.

“Like I thought… Every time it heals it changes colour…” Oracle says, “Take it down!”

“Zaou-Gongen!” Joker shouts one more time and uses the same attack Queen had been using, Atomic Flare. The Grail heals again, and Oracle stops Joker from summoning anyone else.

“Wait its just gonna heal itself again! No fair, this is totally cheating!” She shouts.

“We don’t want you here, Phantom Thieves!” A man shouts, and the entire temple begins a chant, telling them to get out of there.

Mona frowns, “If this is how the public really feels, there’s no way we’ll be able to steal their hearts… We came here all for nothing.”

“You imbeciles are intoxicated by an undesired ‘justice’,” The now golden Holy Grail says, “This is the will of the children of man who have fallen into sloth. My shine is proof that they desire my existence. As long as humanity yearns for me, I shall never perish.”

“No… this can’t be what the public truly wants…” Queen denies, “They wish to stop thinking and be guided by the Holy Grail?”

Joker shakes his head, “No, he can’t let it fool us. It’s just another distortion.”

“Yes.. you’re right,” Queen nods, “but it frustrates me to no end.”

Mona steps forward, “The humans I look up to are not like that. No matter how painful reality is, it’s all over if you don’t try to change how things are! I’m not the only one who believes that. Everyone here agrees. We don’t want to turn back into the people we used to be! That’s why we risked our lives coming here!” He says defiantly, but its all lost on the Holy Grail.

“Humanity already wishes for their distortions to be actualised. I am merely the being that will ultimately grant those wishes. Now, it is time I refrain from my place in this world, and begin to encroach upon reality itself.”

The Holy Grail emanates a blue glow, and the ground beneath them shakes.

“That’s a load of shit!” Skull shouts.

“Encroach? What is it going to do?” Queen asks, and Crow shakes his head.

“If this is the ruler of the cognitive world... and it wishes to appear in reality… it wishes to conquer reality itself!” Crow concludes.

“Mona, what shall we do?” Fox asks, but Mona continues to argue with the Holy Grail.

“I don’t know what you are, but you can’t keep arbitrarily deciding all this on your own. Humans aren’t all stupid like you say they are!”

“Hmph. Indolent, foolish human. You shall offer your hearts to me.”

Suddenly, a sharp pain hits Crows head like never before, and he falls to the ground, screaming.

“Crow!” Joker shouts and runs over. He falls down next to him, “What’s going on?”

“I… don’t… know… argh!” He clutches his head and closes his eyes shut in agony.

“Joker…!” Panther shouts and points to Crows legs, “Look!”

Everyone turns their attention to the disappearing form of Crow, still shouting out in pain, “Just… defeat… the Grail!” he shouts, “Do it… please...!”

“Goro!” Joker shouts, picking up what remained on him, “You’ve got to stay with us! You can’t leave!”

“No…” Crow pulls off his mask, his legs now completely gone, “I... In the end, I was of no use to you. Please, promise me you won’t stop until that… thing is gone.”

“I…” Joker clears his throat, “I promise.”

Goro opens his mouth to say something more, but it never reaches Joker as his form completely disappears.

Before anyone else is able to react, the Holy Grail sends out a much larger ray of light than it had before, which hits all of the Thieves and sends them falling to the ground, “Now, the time for the fusion has come,” the Grail announces.

The ground beneath their feet begins to vanish, and the Thieves are all forced to close their eyes to shield them from the light emanating around them. When they next open their eyes, they are no longer in Mementos.

* * *

“Ow!”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Argh… of course we are!”

When Akira opens his eyes again, he no longer sees the Phantom Thieves standing before him, only his friends in the clothes they wore just before entering Mementos.

“Are… we…?” Futaba trails off, standing up and rubbing her head.

“We’re alive,” Makoto nods, and looks around, “But… we didn’t all make it back…”

Akira looks around frantically. They all seemed to be back in Shibuya as if everything were back to normal. Almost everything. There wasn’t even a trace of Goro with them. It was as if he never existed to begin with.

“We’re back, in Shibuya?” Yusuke questions, “But where is Akechi? He was down in Mementos with us, was he not?”

“It’s gotta have something to do with the Grail. He’s definitely still out there... right...?” Ryuji asks.

“Where is the Holy Grail?” Ann asks, “Akechi-kun said that it was going to try to take over reality, and that’s where we are right now, so…”

“We must have been driven out by the Holy Grail,” Morgana, back in his cat form, concludes.

“Does that mean… we lost?” Haru asks just when it starts to rain.

But it wasn’t rain, or it didn’t have the same colour and consistency as rain. Akira looks up, and a red drop lands on his glasses. He takes them off to wipe them, which is when he hears Futaba shriek.

A large spike rises up from the ground next to her, and when he puts on his glasses he notices the spikes rising up all across the city, the sky gaining the red hue that Mementos had.

“Mementos… here, in Shibuya?!” Makoto asks rhetorically, “Is this what it meant by the Fusion?”

“No way… you gotta be shittin’ me..” Ryuji looks out beyond the city, and Akira follows his gaze to the massive temple they had just been in, only now it was above ground.

* * *

‘The weather’s great today! Wanna go for a ride?’

‘The Phantom Thieves? Wow that brings back memories.’

‘Can’t believe I ever thought they were real.’

‘Wasn’t there some kid who said he caught them or something?’

‘Huh? Nah, that’s just rumours, I mean, everyone was saying they were Phantom Thieves at some point.’

‘You’re right, it’s stupid to think they ever really existed.’

* * *

“The Phantom Thieves… never existed?” Futaba asks, repeating what she had heard in the crowd.

“Is no one seeing any of this?!” Haru asks.

“Why is no one noticing this abnormality?” Yusuke repeats.

“It’s probably because they don’t think that it’s odd,” Makoto contemplates.

Just as Goro had fallen in the depths of Mementos, Futaba winces and puts a hand to her head. She falls to the ground, clutching her head.

“Futaba, are you- argh!” Ann shouts and falls to the ground herself.

Within seconds, Ryuji, Haru, Akira, Makoto, Yusuke and finally Morgana all collapse onto the ground.

“Is this… what happened to Akechi?” Makoto grunts.

“I don’t want to die…” Futaba cries, and Ryuji who was behind her shrieks.

Everyone attempts to look in his direction and watches as Ryuji’s hand disappears. As they each begin to disappear, they all cry out in fear, but no one helps them, or even notices.

As the Phantom Thieves disappear from existence one by one, Morgana looks to Akira, “Where… did we go wrong…?”

“We didn’t…” He attempts to say, but it’s too late as Morgana turns to dust.


	14. Don't Stop Believin'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro finally realises his place in this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it’s Goro’s birthday then of course I had to post another chapter!

Goro opens his eyes, gasping and coughing soon after. He covers his mouth when he coughs and finds himself wearing his school uniform instead of the Crow outfit or even the hoodie he borrowed from Akira that day.

He looks up, finding Igor sitting in the Judges’ stand in front of him. Neither of the wardens were anywhere to be seen, “Your trial is coming to an end. The public seems to have forgotten you, and instead of following the rules of the world it has decided to follow a god out of their own sloth.”

Goro clenches his fist, “I don’t care about what the public thinks of Goro Akechi. Public opinion is fickle, and the people of Shibuya only act out of their own self-interest… that is, this is what I’ve been lead to believe for far too long”

Igor hums, “Oh? Has the false justice of the Phantom Thieves truly lead you astray?”

Goro smirks, “No, with their help, I have been able to ascertain the truth. The power of psychotic breakdowns bestowed onto me by you… that kind of power could only be used to bring about chaos, not fix it. I’m not supposed to bring about order, that was never your objective.”

The room grows darker as Igor closes his eyes and chuckles, “Wildcards… they’re quite troublesome, but to think a wildcard of my own making would come to oppose me.”

“All this time you made me think that I had a choice in all of this, but that was never the case,” Goro holds his ground, unwavering, “I was just your pawn. I was only supposed to bring about destruction for whatever plans you had for my world.”

Igor, or more appropriately, the being calling itself the Holy Grail, rises out from behind the stand and opens its eyes, revealing a bright yellow glow. He laughs, the sound reverberating throughout the court room, “You are perhaps the only human who I have ever underestimated. I won’t make that mistake again. If you will no longer obey me, I will simply have to force you into submission.”

Blue flames surround Goro, and he finds himself wearing his newest Crow outfit. He smirks again, “I’ve been a puppet for far too long. I would rather die than submit myself to a false god such as yourself.”

* * *

“If Goro was only being used by the malevolent god like I was, shouldn’t he be here too?” Joker asks once Lavenza explains the Holy Grail’s game, “He disappeared just like everyone else, but I couldn’t find him in here.”

Lavenza looks away from Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves, “Goro Akechi was never allowed to enter this particular version of the Velvet Room. Had he known about your true power too early, then the game could not be completed. The malevolent god did this by separating you two and making sure one did not meet the other until it was too late. He said that this room reflects the state of your mind, correct?”

“Then…” Queen trails off, “Akechi’s in a different Velvet Room? On his own?”

Lavenza nods, and turns to Skull when he speaks up, “Then how’re we gonna get him outta there? And why’d he disappear back in Mementos instead of Shibuya like we did?”

“I… cannot be certain,” Lavenza replies hesitantly, “but I believe it may be due to Goro Akechi’s power and influence in the real world as an individual. He could not be erased from the people’s cognition completely, and so the god chose to erase him while he was in a place where the god was at the height of his power, where he could influence the people the most.”

“So then… He’s lost to us?” Noir asks.

Oracle shakes her head, “No… Akechi wouldn’t give up that easily.”

“Perhaps… no, never mind,” Fox mutters, and Panther encourages him.

“What is it, Yusuke?”

“If we can return the world back to its prior state by defeating the god, perhaps that would also bring back Akechi,” Fox contemplates.

“Well, it’s our best shot,” Mona nods, “What do you think Joker?”

Everyone looks in his direction, and he pulls out his hands from his pockets, “We’ll find Goro, and we’ll end this once and for all.”

* * *

Sojiro Sakura taps his foot nervously on the train from Yongen-Jaya to Shibuya. He would’ve offered to take him and Tae Takemi to the city centre if not for the worry that he’d crash into one of the roots coming out of the ground. Not that the train’s provided a higher chance for survival.

Takemi puts her foot down on top of his gently to stop him, “there’s people staring.”

Sojiro shakes his head, “I couldn’t care less right now that people are staring. My daughters out there, and so is that kid I’ve been housing. I’m not sure I want to find out if this is all connected to them.”

Takemi scoffs, “If this has anything to do with him, then you and I should both know that Akira Kurusu is our only hope in any of this. C’mon,” she pulls him by his arm when the train doors open, “We’re doomed no matter where we are. We might as well come here and support them.”

They walk out onto the station square where just as they expected, everything looked the same. Except for the path of roots leading to a temple.

“Kaoru! Kaoru!” They hear a man shout, and the two adults share a look.

“Does he sound as disgruntled as we are to you?” Takemi asks and Sojiro groans.

“Looks like he can see all of this stuff too. The least we can do is help him find this ‘Kaoru’.” 

* * *

“Dissenters must be destroyed,” the Herald of Death declares to the Phantom Thieves.

Mona frowns, “It’s useless trying to reason with this guy! Let’s beat him and break through here!”

Joker immediately takes a fighting stance, Noir, Mona and Fox following him, “Sandalphon!” He shouts and uses a Sword Dance against Uriel.

After Fox’s attack, Uriel summons two zealous messengers, “If you don’t deal with those two quickly enough, they’ll just restore his health!” Oracle informs him from inside Prometheus.

Joker looks away from Oracle’s persona and back to the enemies before them, “Alright. Alice!”

His new persona quickly disposes of the two angels with a Die For Me! attack, and Joker turns his attention back to the archangel. With concentrated effort, the Thieves quickly dispose of their first hurdle on their path to the temple.

* * *

“Mishima-kun, you can see this too?” Sadayo Kawakami asks her student when she finds him in the city centre. Yuuki Mishima is about to reply to her when a woman near them screams. Everyone around them starts to question their surroundings too.

“Well, I guess everyone can see this now too. But you saw the city change before everyone else, right, Kawakami-senpai?”

Kawakami sighs, “This has something to do with Kurusu and the Phantom Thieves, doesn’t it?”

Mishima’s eyes widen and he lifts his hands up defensively, “wh-what?! No way! Kurusu has nothing-“

“Relax, Mishima, he told me himself. And it’s no secret that you’ve been their number one fan since the beginning Or did you honestly believe that I didn’t know about your ‘Phan-Site’?” Kawakami smirks, which seems to calm Mishima down a little. She turns away from her student and towards the temple above them, “But… I guess now we have no choice but to believe in the Phantom Thieves.”

* * *

“Halt rebels! I shall not allow you to continue forth!” the Cleanser of Heaven says in a booming voice, similar of that to the previous archangel.

“Come on, let’s beat this one too!” Mona says defiantly, and Joker once again prepares to fight.

“Futsunushi!” Joker shouts and charges, while the rest only use physical attacks against Raphael. When he gets the chance, Joker summons Futsunushi once again and uses Brave Blade on the archangel.

“Yeah! He’s almost down!” Oracle cheers on as the rest try to defeat him.

When Mona heals Joker after Raphael’s last attack, Joker decides to switch up persona’s in an attempt to end the fight there, “Mother Harlot!”

He uses Ice Age but it doesn’t quite finish off the angel. However, Skull jumps in and offers to take care of the archangel himself. Joker encourages him to do so.

* * *

Hifumi Togo turns her head left and right when all hell starts to break loose on the streets of Shibuya. A person near her suddenly disappears into black fog and more screams erupt from the crowd. Her attention is drawn to a kid who seemed oddly calm in this situation and walks over to him, “Are you alright? Unlike everyone else, you do not appear distressed. It is admirable to see a young boy such as yourself remain calm in this situation.”

Shinya Oda raises an eyebrow, “Why would I panic? I know the Phantom Thieves personally, and I know that they can do anything! Even save us from this!”

“Oh?” Hifumi questions, but smiles nonetheless, “I happen to know the Phantom Thieves too. And you are right, they will certainly stop this evil from getting any further out of hand, I’m sure of it.” 

* * *

“Me seemeth I have no choice…” The Declarer of Anguish trails off, “I shall take personal responsibility for the misconduct of my children!”

“Satan!” Joker shouts and summons his persona, he concentrates on his next attack while Mona summons his own persona to fight against Gabriel.

Mona misses his attack and he and Fox take a lot of damage from Gabriel’s Divine Judgement, “Noir, keep fighting, I’ll heal them!” Joker commands, “Lakshmi!”

After he uses Mediarahan, Oracle boosts their evaisiveness. With the added help, they make quick work of the archangel and continue following their path up to the temple. 

* * *

Ichiko Ohya and Chihaya Mifune arrive to sounds of screaming in Shibuya as more and more people turn into black fog and disappear. Chihaya starts to visibly shake, “Is… Is this truly the end…?!”

Ohya swats her on the arm, “Snap out of it! You know that’s not why we’re here. You said yourself that Kurusu was gonna avoid ruin or something, didn’t you?”

“W-well, the future isn’t quite set in stone y-yet,” Chihaya stutters. She breathes deeply, closes her eyes and clenches her fist. After a few seconds, she stomps her right foot, “But you’re right, if we don’t cheer the Phantom Thieves on, then no one else will. The future may not be certain but my faith in them has never been stronger!”

“That’s the spirit!” Ohya grins, “Now, uh, what exactly did you say your name was again?”

* * *

“You are beyond salvation!” The Apocalyptic Guide shouts, and Joker jumps away, ready for battle.

“Lucifer!” He summons and uses Heat Riser on himself.

“Be careful guys, this ones more powerful than any of the others we’ve encountered!” Oracle warns them, and it prompts Queen, now in Mona’s previous position, to raise everyone’s defence. Skull, now replacing Fox, raises everyone’s attack. Panther concentrates on her next attack.

Instead of attacking, Michael summons two Zealous Messengers, and Oracle doesn’t need to remind Joker to dispose of them as quickly as possible.

He summons Lucifer once again and uses Morning Star on the foes. They all take a large amount of damage but none of them go down, “Everyone, take care of the Angel’s first!”

“Got it! Anat!” Queen shouts and uses Atomic Flare on one of the Angel’s. It disappears into black fog and the second one meets the same fate when Skull uses God’s Hand on it.

“Hecate!” Panther summons and deals a lot of damage to the archangel with her Blazing Hell ability.

In four consecutive attacks, using a Brave Blade attack, the archangel manages to down all three of Joker’s teammates. Joker grits his teeth and manages to dodge Michaels fourth Brave Blade, and opts for switching his persona one more time, “Ishtar!” 

* * *

“Sakura-san!” Sae Niijima shouts to get his attention. The older man turns in her direction and nods to her calmly, standing next to a doctor who didn’t seem the slightest bit worried by the surroundings, a man in a long coat and hat, and a middle schooler who she presumed was the mans kid, “They’re up there, aren’t they?”

Sojiro nods, “I haven’t seen them, but yeah, they’re probably taking care of this mess,” through the crowd, he sees a man standing on a podium with a megaphone in his hand. He half expected the man to be some crazy nut raging about the apocalypse, which would even be understandable in this situation, but instead Sojiro hears him speaking of a common friend, “Hey… let’s get closer to him.”

“Huh?” Sae and Takemi both ask but both decide to follow him, Iwai and Kaoru trailing after them. Sae almost bumps into a blonde woman who herself was being dragged by a woman with a camera.

“He said something about the Phantom Thieves!” Sae hears a younger boy shouting to a brown haired girl, “Maybe he knows something!”

Sae almost gets whiplash when she hears the Phantom Thieves being mentioned to her left, “He might know something about the Phantom Thieves. Honestly, Mishima-kun, what do you have left to lose?”

“Well I guess you’re right..” Mishima rubs the back of his head, and they all end up standing in a semi-circle to listen to the older politician.

“We must put our trust into the Phantom Thieves! This whole time we’ve done nothing but demand they help society. Now is the time for us as a society to help the Phantom Thieves! Only they can expose the injustices of this world, the ones we adults caused, and bring peace to this world!” Toranosuke Yoshida shouts into the megaphone and lowers it when he sees the interest he’d garnered. He smiles when he realises how different each person was.

Only one person could’ve brought these people together.

“Do you believe in the Phantom Thieves?”


	15. Coming Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once again, the Phantom Thieves reach the temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wouldn’t be so awful as to keep you guys waiting... would I?

Joker does his best to hide his concern when Goro doesn’t even appear in the temple. The only one standing in their way now was the fake Igor, but his mind was too occupied to take note of whatever demeaning thing he was saying. All he needed to know was that he was going to kick the malevolent gods ass, Phantom Thief style.

“Your actions shall not save a single soul,” the fake Igor laughs, and in a flash of blinding light, he disappears, taking the form of the Holy Grail. Unlike the form it took in the depths of Mementos, this one was a little different.

“Is that…?” Queen asks, lifting a finger to the tubes coming out from the Holy Grail.

“Shit...” Skull swears quietly.

“That’s horrible!” Noir gasps.

She couldn’t have used a better word to describe how Goro, unmasked and beaten, was somehow part of the system, the tubes running through him and into the Holy Grail.

“How...?” Fox tries to ask but words fail him.

The Holy Grail’s laughter booms throughout the temple, “He is slowly outliving his usefulness. He sealed his fate when he dared to oppose me, as have you rebels who dare defy me.”

Joker clenches his fist, and Mona speaks for him, “If you think you can stop us by threatening to destroy us, then guess again.”

“Thinking for yourself? Having your own desires? That’s exactly what makes us human in the first place!” Oracle shouts.

“Hmph,” the Holy Grail scoffs, “So you wish to reject me. If you are not going to obey… then you shall suffer yet again. I shall bring down the hammer of judgment upon you who dare disrupt my world order!”

The tubes begin to shine just as they had before, and Goro screams out in pain while the Grail continues speaking to the Thieves, “I am the one who grants the desires of the masses… I give life to their voices…”

“Prometheus!” Oracle shouts and becomes engrossed by her persona, “If we want a shot at defeating it, we’ll need to cut those lines… but I’m not entirely sure that Goro will come out from that alive. Joker?”

Joker closes his eyes and breathes deeply before replying, “The Holy Grail will slowly suck the life out of him if we don’t do anything. What’s your plan?”

“We’ll have to distract it. Send someone out to cut him down while the rest of you distract the Grail.”

“I’ll do it,” Skull offers, and with Joker’s approving nod, he runs out of formation.

“Beelzebub!” Joker summons and throws a curse attack at the Grail, “Panther, you and I are on the offensive. Queen, keep our health up.”

“You’ve got it Joker! Persona!” Panther replies and uses a weaker fire attack aimed only at the cup in case Goro were to also take the hit by accident.

The Grail once again uses the Will of the People to drain Goro of his life force and heal itself. Goro continues to scream in agony, and breaths heavily when he’s able to catch a break, with every drain his breath becoming more laboured.

“Asura!” Joker summons angrily and uses Atomic Flare on the Grail. While Panther attacks it and Queen heals them, he glances over to Skull who was now on top of the left hand coming out of the floor of the temple. He nods to Skull who picks up the sign.

After the Holy Grails second attack, Skull runs and jumps off of the hand, onto the Grail and cuts through the lines. He grabs Goro just as the lines turn into black smoke and jumps away from the Holy Grail. He lands just behind the Thieves with a barely conscious Goro in his arms, “Joker!”

The Holy Grail scoffs again, “Hm…? I am no longer receiving the strength of the inmates!”

“Queen, Panther, Skull and Mona, keep it distracted, I’m falling back!” He commands and jumps out of formation, Mona taking his place. He runs over to Goro, and Skull joins the fight once more. Goro chuckles lightly when Joker holds him in his arms.

“This… brings back memories… wouldn’t you agree?” He coughs out faintly, “In the end I suppose I was no help at all.”

“Shut up, you’re not disappearing on me this time,” Joker says, pulling off his own mask, “You’re not useless, right now, we need you more than ever.”

“I… couldn’t fight the Holy Grail… I could barely keep up with you in Mementos, and I inconvenienced everyone when I tried to stay away. I’m more useful to you dead than alive,” Goro shakes his head, “The… false god was correct. I’ve outlived my usefulness.”

“Dammit Goro, that’s not true!” Akira insists, “The Holy Grail was only trying to break your resolve because it knew how powerful you were against it. And what good would it do if you were dead? Why the hell do you think I’m here?! Righteousness? I needed to know that you were still alive. Just this once, please, let me save you!”

Goro chuckles again, “You’re right… that’s not very righteous of you… but what’s the point now. You… you were destined to trick the malevolent god… I was only destined to bring about destruction and work in it’s favour.”

“Then why join me?”

“Wh-what?”

“Why side with the Phantom Thieves at all?” Akira reiterates, “Shido confessed, you could’ve run away, lived out the rest of your life in peace but instead you chose to fight alongside us, told us to stop the Holy Grail at all cost. Was that effort all for nothing?”

“…no. It wasn’t,” with Akira’s help, Goro builds up the strength to sit up properly.

“You’ve defied the odds once already. What’s stopping you from doing it again?”

Goro slowly stands up, his mask appearing slowly with a blue flame on his face. Akira puts his own mask back on and stands with him, “I don’t need a false god to tell me what to do. I create my own destiny.”

The Thieves pause when Crow walks to the frontlines with Joker’s help, both of them followed by a blue flame as their personas appear behind them.

“Woah… Crow! Your persona is-!” Oracle starts but Crow interrupts her.

“I called myself a detective and yet I couldn’t see that my true power was just another way someone was using me,” He says defiantly, “I will never make that mistake again. Now then, Joker, shall we end this once and for all?”

“You repugnant rebels...” The Grail comments.

“It can’t heal itself anymore!” Oracle says, “This’ll be a head-to-head fight from now on. Take it down!”

“Persona!”


	16. Sympathy for the Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phantom Thieves vs. their final hurdle

Crow tries to catch his breath as he clutches his knees, tired from his final attack. This time he was finally able to deal more damage, all of his personas more powerful than ever before, “Did we win?” He gasps, looking over to Oracle just like everyone else. She hesitates to reply.

“Oracle!” Queen tries to snap her out of it.

“Oh!” Oracle looks to the unmoving, silent Holy Grail, “Well… it’s not doing anything but I don’t-,”

The ground bellow them starts to shake, and the temple floor splits off into multiple sections as the Holy Grail rises above them. The hands previously stuck in the floor also move, revealing a gigantic figure rising from underneath the surface.

“What the…” Skull mumbles with wide eyes.

“No way…” Panther puts a shaking hand to her mouth.

“Everyone, stay alert,” Crow calls out, “This battle isn’t over yet.”

“The Holy Grail in it’s entirety…” Noir mutters, as shocked as everyone else was.

“I am the administrator born of the collective human unconscious. The god of control, Yaldabaoth,” The god announces in it’s booming voice. The Phantom Thieves hold their ground, “The administrator must guide mankind toward proper development, and now that the foolishness of man has been proven, it is the administrator’s duty to purge them.”

“Proven?” Crow shouts to the god, “You rigged a game you yourself created to showcase the flaws of humanity. You didn’t need proof, this is exactly the outcome you have been working towards throughout your existence!”

“I am the entity which governs this world. It’s future depends wholly on my leadership,” Yaldabaoth says, ignoring Crow’s observation entirely, “Those who dare defy this natural order shall be met with punishment raining down from the heavens.”

An immense gust of wind almost knocks them all down, but the Thieves hold their own and stand firm on the ground bellow them.

“That things on a totally different level!” Oracle shouts, and Fox shakes his head.

“Can we defeat something like him?”

“This is the best possible outcome!” Mona turns to the group, “We’re fighting against a god who’s not holding anything back, right? What bigger target could there be for the Phantom Thieves to tackle?”

Crow smirks, “He’s right. We have come this far, what is a god to us if not another target?”

Noir sets her foot down, ready to fight and no longer afraid, “Yes. We can no longer allow ourselves to be held back.”

“Yeah!” Oracle cheers, “We’ll totally beat him!”

Queen shakes her head, smiling, “This is what we came all this way for, after all.”

“Crowning our glory by defeating a god… now that is true art,” Fox comments.

“We can do anything if we put our mind to it!” Panther shouts.

Skull pumps his fist, “Yeah, lets take this thing down for good!”

Mona grins, “Man… you guys are the best, stupidest group I could ask for. I’m so glad I was able to be a part of your team…”

Joker smiles as well, “It’s not over yet. Let’s take back what’s ours.”

Mona agrees, “We’ll take back this world!”

“Rebels who dare defy my rule… you shall perish!” Yaldabaoth declares, but Joker’s no longer listening when he summons his persona.

“Metatron!” Joker shouts and concentrates on his next move. Crow stands on his right side and summons his own persona to raise everyone’s evasion.

“Icarus!”

Queen and Skull are also ready to give it everything they’ve got, and dodge Yaldabaoth’s attacks as they come and go. Even when the god pulls out the Gun of Execution, the Sword of Conviction, the Bell of Declaration and the Book of Commandments, they are all for naught as the team expertly handles each attack thrown at them, healing and providing support at each opportunity, shielding each other from attacks and throwing their own charged attacks at the god.

Yaldabaoth stops his attacks when he takes considerable damage from Joker’s last attack, “So…this is the power that resists ruin…”

“It’s not finished yet!” Oracle warns them.

“My control shall not bow down to ruin. My control is the ultimate truth of this world.”

With a wave of red and black light, Yaldabaoth sends out one powerful attack which causes the entire team to fall to its knees.

“Dammit!” Skull groans when he tries to get up.

“You only want to destroy this world because you can’t even control the masses yourself!” Mona shouts, “All you wan to do is flaunt around your own existence!”

“That…” Fox winces when he tries to stand up, “Sounds about right…”

The god sends out the same attack as before, surrounding everyone in black, “Since you’ve been forsaken by the world, there is nowhere that you can belong!” Yaldabaoth shoots rays of lighting at the team, which almost knocks all of them out in a single hit. When they continue to resist, he strikes again.

“My.. strength…” Fox once again tries to stand up, but fails, still lying on the ground.

“I cannot… fight any longer…” Crow exhales, clutching his stomach.

“Is this it…? Have we come here all for nothing…?” Noir asks.

“Not even one sliver of unpredictability can be permitted under my control.”

* * *

Down below, the people continue to run around, screaming in fear as they disappear into black fog left and right, and red rain falls down from the sky. Amidst the panic, a small group of individuals remains calm, until one voice shouts out, uniting them all,

“Take it down, Phantom Thieves!” The Thieves all-time, number one fan Mishima shouts out, fist raised in the air.

The public around him suddenly falls silent no longer running around or afraid as they all look up to the platform in the sky.

“They’re still fighting…? After all this time…?” A girl in the crowd asks.

“Of course they are!” Takemi shouts out, standing next to Mishima, “They never gave up!”

Yoshida joins in, “even when we as a society tried to drag them down, they never stopped trying to right our wrongdoings!”

“This entire time you all expected the Phantom Thieves to clean up your mess,” Sojiro shakes his head.

“Well, now maybe it’s time for us to finally take responsibility for ourselves!” Ohya shouts out.

The crowd still hesitates to follow the group, or even support the Phantom Thieves. They all look up to the god in the sky, hesitant.

“What does it take for you all to realise that they are our only hope?” Hifumi joins in, and Shinya quickly jumps to her side.

“Yeah! The Phantom Thieves helped everyone and this is how you thank them?!”

“They will prevail!” Chihaya announces, “They’ve fought and defied fate once before, what makes you think they can’t do it again?”

“They never asked for anything in return for what they’ve done,” Kawakami points out, “And yet you repay them with hate and ignorance?”

Iwai smirks, “It’s not like you all have anything left to lose now.”

Sae walks over and puts a hand on Mishima’s shoulder, “If you don’t believe in the Phantom Thieves, then you are all ignorant to the true nature of this world.”

“When will you stop running from the truth!” Mishima shouts again, and the entire square falls silent.

It’s only silent for a few seconds as Mishima hears someone in the distance.

“Phantom Thieves!”

“Yeah, go Phantom Thieves!”

“We believe in you!”

“You can do it, Phantom Thieves!”

* * *

“You hear that?!” Mona shouts at Yaldabaoth as the skies begin to clear, “Those are the voices of the humans that you look down on!”

Slowly, Joker stands up on his own, Crow following him soon after.

“Hah…” Crow grins, “A god of control and yet it cannot even control the distorted masses… a god in charge of a game even it can’t rig to work in its favour,” He laughs, “Even the people you thought you controlled oppose you!”

“They could make it sound a little less condescending though…” Skull complains as he stands up. He helps Noir get up.

“But… they are cheering for us nonetheless.”

Fox and the others stand up to with what strength they managed to muster, “then let us not disappoint.”

“We will not be erased any longer!” Queen shouts defiantly.

“We’re gonna go all out!” Panther cheers too.

“Yeah, We’ll never bow down to a fake god like you!” Oracle points at Yaldabaoth.

“God is the one who creates the world!” Yaldabaoth shouts angrily.

“Yeah?!” Skull shouts, “Well this world doesn’t need you to be around any longer! Joker!” All of the Phantom Thieves look to their Leader, “Let’s take this guy down!”

Joker grins, and looks away from Skull and towards the God, “Your rule on this world is over.”

* * *

‘You can do it!’

‘Go! Go! Go!’

‘Take him down!’

‘Nothing can stop you now!’

‘Phantom Thieves! Phantom Thieves! Phantom Thieves!’

* * *

**_So then, you’ve even tricked a god_** , Loki chuckles in Crow’s mind, **_I suppose this whole time I have underestimated you._**

“Yes,” Crow nods with his eyes closed, as his outfit returns to the one he had when he first joined the Phantom Thieves, “Akira,” he opens his eyes once more, both of their masks gone with a blue flame, “Let us finish this game. Once and for all.”

Arsene and Loki appear behind both of them, surrounded by chains. Without hesitating, the two Wild Cards grab onto the chains and break them by whipping them in the direction of Yaldabaoth.

Both Arsene and Loki disappear, and the malevolent god laughs, “So, you have both failed to harness your power. This truly is a fitting end to your hold over the masses.”

“No,” Mona shakes his head, “This isn’t over yet!”

Thunder erupts in the skies and dark clouds surround the platform. From behind Akira and Goro, Satanael emerges, as large as Yaldabaoth himself. By his side, a second demon shows up, this one looking almost identical to Satanael, but instead it’s skin and clothing are a light grey.

They both tower over the Phantom Thieves, but Akira’s and Goro’s determination doesn’t waver anymore.

* * *

‘Woah! What is that?!’

‘Is that another god?!’

‘It’s the Phantom Thieves, it’s gotta be!’

‘It’s totally amazing!’

* * *

With the power of the people, all of the Phantom Thieves regain their strength.

“Fools!” Yaldabaoth shouts, “This is why man is doomed…”

Yaldabaoth tries using the same power as he had before, but it no longer works on the Phantom Thieves. They remain unmoved, fists clenched and ready to destroy the god, “Impossible!”

Mona smirks as the crowd bellow cheers them on, “I see… if a god plays naughty, then it’s a demon lord’s duty to punish him! What better way is there for a finale as a trickster!” They all turn to the Wild Cards, “Joker, Crow, we’re entrusting our strength and the people’s hopes to you! Put an end to this!”

“Ravage him, Satanael!”

“Finish him, Leviathan!”

“Preposterous! You dare rob the peoples wishes?!” Yaldabaoth shouts, but it’s no use as Akira and Goro draw their guns on the god of control.

“Your reign is over,” Goro narrows his eyes.

“Begone.”


	17. Ain't no Rest for the Wicked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that the Metaverse is gone, what will happen to Akira and Goro?

“Well then...”

“Well then,” Akira repeats after Goro.

The world appeared to be back to normal, though there wasn’t even a hint of the cognitive world ever existing. Even Morgana was nowhere to be found. The other Phantom Thieves decided to call it a day, leaving only Goro and Akira behind.

With the loss of his weapon in the cognitive world, Goro now had to support himself against the bus which always stood outside Shibuya Station while the two figured out where to go from there.

“We...” Goro tries to say, “We have many matters to discuss, but this is neither the time nor the place to discuss them.”

Akira nods slowly, “You’re right... but until we do that, do you just... want to go back to Leblanc with me? Just pretend for one night like we’re normal people just trying to celebrate Christmas?”

Goro smiles, genuinely. No more snide comments from Loki, no more doubting from Robin Hood. After two and a half long, difficult years, his mind was finally at peace, “Yes, I would like that. But... you may have to help me walk back to Yongen-Jaya.”

Akira hums, “Wait here. Untouchables should still be open,” before Goro can argue, Akira runs off to the model gun shop, leaving him alone.

Or so Goro thought.

“Alone on Christmas Eve?” Sae Niijima asks as she makes her way to Goro, “I... I suppose I should thank you for what you have done.”

Goro shakes his head, “No, Sae-san. My former self would lie and accept your gratitude as if I had tried to help the Phantom Thieves for a noble reason but... that was my former self. In all honesty, I helped them because I hoped that it would redeem some of the truly horrendous things that I have done.”

Sae folds her arms, “And do you think you’ve redeemed yourself?”

“I... I would like to think that I’m now on the right path to redemption. Whether I have truly redeemed myself through my most recent actions is up to those who I have wronged,” Goro explains and sighs, “Although, I suppose that is part of the reason why you are here.”

“I’m sorry,” Sae-san looks down, “I did come here to thank you, Akira and the rest of the Phantom Thieves for what you have done, but I also came to inform you that without you and Akira I cannot prove the existence of the Metaverse and I cannot prosecute Shido. With Akira on probation and your past crimes...” she trails off and Goro finishes the sentence for her.

“We would have to confess to our crimes and we would be placed under arrest,” Goro smirks, but there’s no happiness behind it, “A happy ending would be too much to ask for I suppose... but I wonder... wouldn’t a confession from me be enough?”

“What are you...?” Sad asks but she sees through his intentions, “If you can prove your connection to Shido... then yes, I suppose that a confession from you would be enough. Akira may never need to see the inside of a cell ever again.”

“Then... would it be too much to ask for you to give me one day? I’ll turn myself over to the police once all of my affairs are in order.”

Sae nods, “I’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning, before Akira wakes up. Is that enough time?”

“It has to be.”

Sae looks behind her and sees Akira approaching them in the distance holding another cane in his hand, “I’ll leave explaining everything to you. Tell him that I had to go work on another case.”

Goro nods once, “Of course… thank you, Sae-san. I won’t let you down this time, I promise.”

Sae only leaves him with a similar nod and walks down into the station. Akira runs over but doesn’t manage to catch up with her in time, “Oh… I was hoping to talk to her… ah, I guess I’ll see her tomorrow anyway,” Akira shrugs and hands him the cane, “did she say anything important?”

Goro takes the cane from him and the two make their way to the Yongen-Jaya line, “No, she merely wanted to congratulate us on our success. I suppose she’ll be coming over tomorrow and thanking you in person herself.”

“Right,” Akira nods, but he’s not completely convinced. He’d watched the conversation for a little while after returning from his quick trip to Iwai and it looked more serious than mere praise. Goro knew better than to keep secrets from him by now, so surely if this was important he would just say, “Hey, so, do detectives have the time to build snowmen?”

Goro laughs, “You think it’ll snow enough in one night for such an endeavour?”

Akira hums, “Hm, maybe not. Oh, then what about grabbing some take out and getting hot chocolate in Leblanc?”

Goro smiles fondly, “Yes… that sounds delightful.”

* * *

The next day, Goro stirs awake next to Akira, and to his relief finds that the fluffy haired boy was still sound asleep. He carefully climbs out of the bed, picks out the school uniform that Sae was able to recover from his apartment once everything had been dealt with, and slowly pulls it on, wincing quietly whenever his leg acted up.

He picks up the cane but doesn’t let it touch the ground in case the tapping woke Akira up. He makes it to the stairs when he looks back and begins to regret his decision.

_No. Shido must pay for his crimes, and Akira deserves better than to be treated as a criminal. I have to do this._

He walks back over to the bed and gently presses a kiss to his forehead. As he pulls away, Akira sleepily opens his eyes and lifts his head a little, “Goro…? What are you doing…?”

“Oh,” Goro says, caught off guard. He quickly makes up an excuse as to why he was ready to leave Leblanc at 7:30 in the morning, “I couldn’t get back to sleep once I woke up so I decided to go on a walk. But you should rest, I won’t be long.”

“Oh… okay… have fun… love you…” Akira mumbles, clearly still half asleep, proven by his light snores the second his head hits the pillow once again.

“I love you too, Akira Kurusu,” Goro says quietly and leaves the attic.

Just as expected, he finds Sae waiting for him just down the road from the café, “Did you do everything you wanted to?”

Goro closes his eyes and nods with a small smile, “I have no more regrets, if that is what you wish to know,” he opens his eyes and motions to the car, “Now then, shall we?”

* * *

“You let him turn himself in?!” Akira shouts at Sae in the café that night, “He’s helped put away half the criminals in there, and probably impacted the lives of the other half of the inmates in some way or another on Shido’s orders! He’ll be dead by the end of the week!”

“Akira!” Makoto shouts and stands between her sister and her friend, “it’s not my sisters fault. Goro knew that he had to be held accountable for his actions sooner or later. At least like this you don’t have to go to juvenile hall either.”

Akira grits his teeth and clenches his fist, and Ryuji puts a hand on his shoulder, “Dude… he fought a god… I’m sure he’ll be fine in there.”

“But-!”

“He’s right,” Futaba agrees, “Shido will pay for his crimes and it’s all thanks to Goro. To be honest, I think that this is one of the more favourable outcomes for him.”

Sae steps away from the rest of the group, “He’s a minor, his crimes will remain a secret from the public. From the perspective of the people, Goro Akechi will have just vanished from society. At least like this, Shido’s more dangerous allies will stop looking for him, and all of you can lead normal lives once again.”

Akira slumps in his booth, “You should’ve let me confess instead.”

“And what? Have you locked up too?” Ann argues, “You know Goro would’ve turned himself in whether you confessed or not.”

Yusuke agrees with her, “It’s true… In any case, we must not lose hope.”

Akira looks up from the table he’d been looking down at since sitting down, “What are you talking about?” He turns his attention to Haru when she speaks up.

“Whether we have powers or not, we will always be Phantom Thieves, and we swore to aid those who were wronged by the injustices of adults. Goro did a lot of bad things…” Haru trails off, but swallows the lump in her throat and continues, “But just like the rest of us, he was a victim of the adults who used him for their own selfish gains.”

“What kind of Phantom Thieves would we be if we didn’t help someone like that?” Ryuji grins.

Akira narrows his eyes and looks over everyones’ expressions. They were happy, reminding him of excitable children who couldn’t wait to tell him a secret they’d been keeping, “Do you guys have some sort of plan…?”

“Well…” Futaba trails off and lets Makoto explain.

“Actually, we already did something… Now we just have to wait for the results.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo.... I may have gotten super addicted to a new game and it’s been super distracting because I ended up binging it and I kinda lost any sense of time...
> 
> Anyway, don’t worry everyone, this isn’t the last chapter! The Phantom Thieves have one more trick up their sleeves...


	18. My Generation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira needs to save Goro one last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose it’s appropriate for my last chapter of an Akeshu fanfic to be posted on June 9th.
> 
> In any case, thank you all for sticking around for so long and I hope you enjoy the final chapter of my story!
> 
> By the way if it isn’t clear from this, I’m not super familiar of the intricacies of Japanese criminal law, only British, so I apologise for any inconsistencies that result from that.

12.19

_“…so long story short, everyone at Akechi’s school just thinks he’s got the flu. Anyway, I gotta go take care of some stuff!” Futaba rushes out from the attic where Akira was looking after Goro and runs back to her house before Akira questions her. She pulls up a group chat, one where Akira wasn’t involved._

> _Futaba: **I’m still not sure about keeping this from Akira…**_
> 
> _Makoto: **It’s for the best. Even my sister admits that chances of prosecuting Shido are slim.**_
> 
> _Makoto: **And even then there’s a chance that Shido’s associates will play dirty and blame everything on Akechi.**_
> 
> _Ryuji: **He’s just another guy who some shitty adults wanted to use.**_
> 
> _Ryuji: **He saved us twice already, we owe it to him to take down Shido.**_
> 
> _Haru: **I may not forgive him for killing my father but… I certainly sympathise with him.**_
> 
> _Haru: **I’m willing to accept Akechi not going to jail and paying for his crimes if it means that Shido and his associates don’t get away.**_
> 
> _Makoto: **Akira would definitely not want us going after such dangerous targets when we’re running on fumes. This is the only chance we have.**_
> 
> _Yusuke: **Then we all agree, yes?**_
> 
> _Ann: **Yeah, lets make sure the real bad guys pay for what they’ve done.**_
> 
> _Makoto: **Futaba, you have the names, right?**_
> 
> _Futaba: **Not a lot, Akechi has some stuff on his phone but it’s a whole web. I’ve got four so far.**_
> 
> _Ann: **It’s a start.**_
> 
> _Ryuji: **Well, I think I got everything we need for Mementos. See y’all at the station.**_

* * *

12.31

“Breaking news, we have just learned that the famous idol and high school detective, Goro Akechi, has been arrested earlier this week. Our sources tell us that he is suspected to have connections to former Prime Minister, Masayoshi Shido and the notorious Phantom Thieves themselves. More news to follow as this story develops.”

Akira clenches his fist, standing in Shibuya station’s accessway. His facial expression remains calm as he watches the people in the streets celebrating New Year’s Eve.

“Guessing you guys heard the news?” Ryuji asks, and Akira turning his head is enough confirmation, “I thought no one was supposed to know?”

Makoto sighs and closes her eyes, leaning against the railing, “He’s a celebrity. Chances are that it all spread through rumours. In any case, my sister thinks this might still drive those thugs away.”

“What are his chances of getting out?” Futaba asks her.

“Well, the trial has only just recently started. There is some good news though, a lot more of Shido’s associates have confessed than we expected, and the rest ran away,” Makoto informs them and it piques Yusuke’s interest.

“Wouldn’t their escape hurt Goro’s chance’s of getting out?”

Haru shakes her head, “Not necessarily. If I understand correctly, then running away from a trial is seen as an admission of guilt, correct?”

“That’s pretty much it, yes,” Makoto confirms, “There is some bad news though.”

“What is it?” Ann asks and Akira prepares himself for the worst.

“Given the nature of his crimes, the judge has decided that Goro shouldn’t be placed in a safe house… Sae told me that he’s been transferred to juvenile hall tomorrow morning.”

* * *

1.3

Goro opens up his eyes when he hears his name being called out. He rubs his eyes and sits up on his bed as the guard explains why he had woken him up,

“You’ve got a psychiatric evaluation coming up today.”

Goro pursues his lips. That couldn’t mean anything good. It was most likely common practice at the institution, but Goro knew that having two different personas arguing in his head for two years, on top of severe abandonment issues mixed with murder couldn’t have left him in a good state of mind.

“After that, your lawyer’s coming to talk to you.”

Lawyer? He must’ve been talking about Sae. No one else would stand in his defence.

It takes him a little while to stand up, and once he’s standing the guard passes him a cane to help him make his way through the halls, “Very well. Where is this psychiatric evaluation taking place?”

* * *

1.10

“He’s being moved to a medical reformatory?!” Akira’s asks Sae with wide eyes as the two sit at the bar in Leblanc. The elderly couple in the back observe him, curious as usual, but he ignores them completely, “He’s not insane!”

Sae frowns, looking down at her coffee, “Unfortunately, the person who evaluated him believes that he has many issues. He tested positive for antisocial personality disorder, among many other things.”

“Antisocial what now?” Futaba asks, finishing wiping the dishes dry.

“It means they think he’s a psychopath,” Akira puts bluntly without looking her way, “He had… issues before, but he’s good now, isn’t he?”

Sae sighs and shakes her head, “They don’t seem to think so. He’s currently under observation. If you’re right, they may deem him sane and release him.”

“How is this going to impact his case?” Sojiro asks, putting away a glass that Futaba just dried.

“It depends on how this impacts the evidential weight of his confession,” Sae informs them, “Although, if he pleads an insanity case then it’s up to the doctor’s treating him when he’s released.”

“What about Akira’s criminal record? Has Shido said anything about that?” Futaba asks.

“As I’ve said before, even if Shido confesses to that, we’ll need some more irrefutable evidence that he did nothing wrong.”

Futaba frowns and sets down the plate she’d been drying, “But he didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I know,” Sae lifts up the cup of coffee, “But my opinion in this is meaningless. I’m sorry, there’s little more I can do for you or Akechi.”

* * *

1.28

“How are you feeling today, Akechi-kun?” The nurse asks the detective in the same tone she’d used every day. Goro expected that he’d be deemed insane enough to end up a facility such as this but if the nurse was going to ask him that every day he may just end up hurting his chances of getting out.

“Good,” he lies through gritted teeth.

“Now, Akechi, you know that lying will just hinder your rehabilitation.”

Goro smirks, “You’re sounding just like Yaldabaoth,” He continues speaking so that the nurse doesn’t get a chance to question him on that. He didn’t need ‘delusional’ added to his resume, “But you’re right. I’m quite miserable here. I have limited contact with real people, the bed is uncomfortable, my sociopathic father may end up going free and the food here is unpleasant.”

“You think your father is sociopathic?”

Goro groans, “Please, don’t read into that more than you need too. I know you all believe that I have a psychopathy disorder, and while you’re most likely right, it doesn’t mean that I’m insane.”

“But you think your father is insane,” the nurse points out as she changes Goro’s pillows.

“He used his own son to murder his political rivals just to become Prime Minister without hesitation. If any of my blood relatives are insane, it’s him,” Goro smirks, “But then again, I suppose he’s not the one currently in a medical reformatory.”

* * *

2.1

Futaba pulls off Akira’s covers in the early morning. With no Morgana, getting up to school on time was proving far more difficult then he would’ve thought. At least he had Futaba’s support, “C’mon sleepy head! You gotta get to school!”

Akira groans and tries to pull the covers out of Futbaba’s grasp, but he fails spectacularly when Futaba throws his covers on the floor. When did she get so strong, “proving your good character in court is gonna be really hard if you don’t go to school.”

“Everyone’s gonna treat me like a criminal no matter what happens anyway,” Akira says through his pillow. Futaba pulls it away too and he starts whining.

“What would Goro say if he saw you like this?”

Akira sits up, rubbing his eyes, “You’re right. He’d call me a little bitch… just more eloquently and with more words.”

“And…?”

“And he’d be right,” Akira stands up and walks over to the box containing all of his clothes, “I’ll go to school… but I’m allowed to be grumpy about it.”

“Go drink Sojiro’s coffee, it’ll help,” Futaba reassures him.

Sojiro’s coffee would at least be one positive for his day.

* * *

2.3

The next time Akira opens his eyes, it’s not in his attic, but in the Velvet Room once again. He walks out of his cell, and to his surprise finds Goro walking out of a different one.

“So… this is your Velvet Room,” Goro comments, “It’s a prison.”

Akira ignores Lavenza and Igor and storms over to Goro. Goro braces himself for the worst, but Akira pulls him into a tight embrace, “You idiot… what did you do?”

“You would’ve done the same…” Goro wraps his arms around him, whispering, “You didn’t deserve to be imprisoned.”

Igor clears his throat behind them, and the two separate. Lavenza begins to explain, “Despite these turn of events, you were able to defy the malevolent god and prevent the world from falling into ruin. You both chose the correct path from your own volition. You did not compromise your beliefs for personal gain in the end.”

A ball of light falls between the two, and Akira reaches out for it. Just before he touches it, the ball turns into a tarot card, “The last arcana you have taken hold of is The World,” Lavenza explains, “It is the willpower to stand up in this world on your own feet, unswayed by no one. That will become the basis of hope toward a future with your teammates who share the same belief. Now that you have gained that power, you are no longer individuals that wander alone.”

“My duties end here as well,” Igor says and slowly he starts to fade away, “You were truly remarkable guests.”

Lavenza too begins to fade out and the Wild Cards look to each other.

“I… suppose this may be the last time in a long time that we will see each other,” Goro smiles sadly as the two of them start to fade away with the Velvet Room.

“No, don’t say that. We’ll get you out, I promise.”

“Akira…” Goro frowns, “…forget about me.”

“You know I could never do that.”

“I-,” Akira hears Goro say but it’s the last thing he hears from him before waking up in the attic of Leblanc once more.

* * *

2.13

The nurses around him stay particularly silent today as they escort him out of his room and into the same room where he’d left all of his personal belongings when being transferred. Was there somewhere else they were taking him? Did his trial in the real world come to a conclusion after all?

He puts his school uniform on just as they told him to, and once he’s done, he’s surprised to see Sae Niijima on the other side of the second door, “I presume that if you are here then the trial has ended, correct?”

Sae smiles and hands him the cane he’d left behind in her car two months prior, “You’re a free man… almost. Akira’s criminal record was overturned in the process as well.”

“I… how?”

“A woman came forward and claimed that her first testimony was false, which was later backed up by other witnesses. As for you, Shido’s associates testified and admitted to everything they put you through. The judge decided that anyone would’ve have been driven to insanity under that kind of duress, and so your sentence was lightened,” Sae explains, “With time served, no prior record, psychiatric evaluation and good character defences from your friends, the judge has decided to put you on probation with court mandated therapy.”

Goro chuckles, “Ah, the irony of it all. I am, of course, very grateful for everything you’ve done… but I can’t help but wander who you’re talking about when you say friends.”

Sae laughs, “So perceptive, and yet you didn’t notice how the entire group has treated you as one of their own?”

Goro looks away as the two walk out of the facility, “Friends… I could get used to hearing that…” he mutters, “What of Shido?” He asks, looking back in her direction.

“I was able to prosecute him, and he will most likely be found guilty thanks in no small part to your confession,” Sae reaches her car and unlocks it. Goro climbs into the passenger seat, cane between his legs, “There is one more thing you should know.”

“Yes?”

“There’s only one person who stepped forward and decided to keep you under his wing while you’re on probation. This does mean that you will most likely have to move into the small, dusty attic of a local café,” Sae glances to Goro who can barely contain his smile, “This shouldn’t inconvenience you too much I believe.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

* * *

“I can’t believe I agreed to this…” Sojiro rubs the back of his neck when Goro shows up at his front door, “and you’re sure you’re okay with this, Futaba?”

Futaba cackles from behind the counter, “If we keep an eye on him he can’t do anything wrong, right?”

“R-right!” Goro stutters and looks to Sojiro and bows his head, “I promise to stay out of the way and not cause any more trouble!”

Sojiro rolls his eyes, “I’ve heard that before. Well, I guess if Futaba thinks having you here is a good idea, then I’ll have to take her word on it. Sit down,” Sojiro motions to Goro’s regular seat and starts to brew his usual, “The kid won’t be back for a while, so I suggest you wait here. You still planning on going to college?”

“If there’s any college that’s willing to accept me, then yes,” Goro nods, and picks up on Sojiro’s implication soon after, “I’ll start on my applications while I wait…”

* * *

It’s late by the time Akira reaches Leblanc, but the light still shines in the café. It was Ann’s fault. She dragged him across half of Tokyo just to find the right dress for her visit to Shiho, even though in the end she realised she owned the exact dress that she was looking for.

Akira was half sure it was just a ploy to keep him occupied.

Looking down, he opens the doors of the café and the smell of coffee and curry fill his nose just like they always did. The bell chimes as the door closes and he almost walks past the one person sitting at the end of the bar.

“Welcome home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m a sucker for happy endings... even if it means putting my faves through literal hell to get there.
> 
> Once again, thank you all so much for reading and for all of the support throughout this story!  
> I’ve been thinking of writing an epilogue for this, just as a one-shot, but only time will tell if I do actually decide to write it.


End file.
